power routing and dcc

[jward]

i think i already know the answer to this but i wanted to be sure......

as many of you know i am handlaying my track, and this weekend i started laying out the yard. to this point, i have insulated the frogs on all my switches as is recommended practice for dcc. in the yard i would like to have some sort of power routing capability. what i am thinking of doing is to insulate the frog from the points, but not insulate the rails beyond the frog. the switches will have power routing switch stands (grond throws).....

in dc, this would kill the power to the track the switch is not lined for, by making both rails on that track the same polarity. will it do the same with dcc, or is there the possibility of a phase difference between the two rails that would cause problems. the only argumants i've heard against power routing switches in dcc cooncerns the close proximity of the points and stock rails, which are of different polarity on most power routing switches. metal wheels which momentarily contact both rails cause momentary shorts that can trip the breakers. i would not have this problem as i've insulated the points from the frog, near the frog......

[Jim Banner]

Your reasoning is right on, as long as there are no feeds to either of the extended frog rails.  If one of the extended frog rails must have a feeder (for example, if that route is part of the main line or other track that has to stay powered up) then make sure you insulate that side of the frog but not the side of the frog forming part of the siding.  I have exactly that situation on a switcher pocket on my own H0 layout.  The only difference is that I use DPDT slide switches to both mechanically move the points and to electrically switch the frog.

Jim

[Heave]

I used kato power routing switches in DCC. To defeat the power routing, I installed a insulated joiner prior to the frog at that end on both the inside short rails.

I would then feed all three sections of track connecting all three routes of the switch. I made sure that the engine had room to stop as sometimes a derailment might bridge the protected rails.

On a loop of track, the rail at the table edge was south rail, the inner rail was north rail. Both rails were color coded blue and white. It was not difficult to keep all rails in phase in DCC this way as long as all rails agreed to north and south.