The main power section has been completed enough that it powers all the track. All the components are located in a pull out drawer which provides easy access. A volt meter and accessory booster still need to be wired. It is designed so that a Digitrax or NCE command station can be easily interchanged.

When first testing there was a booster in the drawer for the east side power and a west side booster. Both were 5 amps. I began to realize that that this layout only requires one booster. I originally thought that it would cause less problems not to have the DCC power wiring going from the east side power section over the mechanical room door to the west side. Just the DC power via 12 ga zip type cable and rail sync signal via flat phone cable. Hence the second booster. I have only run a couple of trains at once but there does not seem to be a problem with just one booster providing DCC power to the west side via the zip type cable.

The east and west side still have their respective circuit breakers.

Another mile stone has been reached today. All the basic main line wiring has been completed. This included the block detectors. There are a couple of jumpers and a temporary DCC cable used to provide power from the west to east section. Only one booster was used. This was enough so that a train could be run.

When power was first applied there were no shorts. Some track feeders had to be added before a train could complete a loop but that was it. I was surprised that with the long DCC cable (12 gauge zip wire) that there was no problem with the integrity of the DCC signal. The train ran OK and a SMD82 switch machine drive was temporarily hooked up and it worked OK.