Track Busses

15 April 2011

With thanks to Terry Hackett I have now split my track bus into an Accessory Bus and the track power districts. The power districts are protected by a DCC Specialities circuit breaker so that if there is a short on the track I can still operate my accessories.

DCC Bus Connection - 14 October 2011

I have started to connect the new tracks to my DCC track bus. I use mains cable for the bus with the convention:

- black or blue for the inner rail of the circuit

- red or brown for the outer rail of the circuit

I use terminal blocks from Rapid (part 21-0905) to connect the bus to the track droppers. The mains cable can be stripped with a scalpel and connected to these without making a break in the cable. I use black 1.8a cable from Rapid (part 01-0300) for the dropper wires. These are connected to the terminal blocks using M3.5/4BA solder tags from Squires (part TAGM35). The terminal blocks are covered with black potting boxes from Rapid (part 30-0728). I drill a hole for a wood screw on the front top centre and a hole in the bottom to let out any water. I also cut pieces from the back of the sides to clear the wires.

Here are the parts:

wired:

and cover on:

The 4 connections allow 2 bus wires to share a terminal block.

The black dropper wires go through the frame and then back out, over the felt and under the track to be soldered to the rail. This avoids having to make holes in the felt or baseboard top.