Wiring Your Model Railroad (Essentials)

Equally informative on wiring mod3l train layout. Greatly informative.

Even though I have been doing modelrailroading off and on for 60 years and have built a layout for DCC and installed sound decoders, I found a lot of information in this book I didn't know. It should really have emphasized DCC in a subtitle. If you are not into DCC and this book doens't convince you then it has all you need to know about DC. I haven't bought other DCC books but I've read the author, Larry Puckett's, monthly column in Model Railroader. He also has a DCC website under the name DCCguy.com. He has many detailed subjects and it has been my go to place for information on things like keep alive current for DCC that is not found elsewhere. He invites responses to topics as well as new topics. But buy the book and get a terrific start in DCC or filling in the gaps in your knowledge

I have Larry's other book and followed his articles in "Model Railroading", so I was looking forward to his new book. It's not a bad book, but not a great book either. It attempts to explain everything you would ever want to know about wiring in 128 pages - which is not possible. It covers both DC and DCC but not AC. Because it attempts to explain everything, some topics are covered lightly and in those area of the author's experience, in more detail. The author does a good job at the system level showing the equipment available and the interconnect between modules and the railroad. Herein, lies the books value. Integration of signaling systems is also illustrated. Track plans from previous issues of Model Railroader are used as examples. The book is aimed at the American HO gauge railroader, for example the author goes into detail about some HO turnouts, no N gauge turnouts are shown. Granted the concepts are the same for N gauge, but some examples would have been nice. Also, not all turnouts are illustrated; perusing the Walthers HO catalog, I found at least 4 brands that were ignored. Other than Peco turnouts, no other non-American equipment is shown. Likewise, with system components, no Bachmann or Hornby components. Only American suppliers are listed in the appendix. Missing from the illustrated turnout wiring diagrams are three way turnout and dual gauge turnouts. Figure 15 on page 93 can be confusing, showing 5 block occupancy detectors going to a single location. This happens when author grabs an existing piece or artwork and doesn't fully proof- I've been there and done that. (I constructively point these omissions out, so they can be added to the next addition.) Where the book falls short is on electrical theory. When discussing circuits, electron flow rather than current is shown. (Electron flow is in the opposite direction of current flow) While technically correct, current flow is the industry convention. The biggest failing is a lack of understanding of transmission line theory in the section on long power buses, pages 53ff. The description isn't quite correct. Figure 20 on page 54 shows an R-C network across the bus as a "filter". In this configuration, it has little if any effect, and doesn't protect the bus past this network. This is a common misunderstanding in model railroading. This mistake is understandable, as Richard Matrick says in his book, "....most professionals have little or no knowledge of transmission lines."(1) DCC signals move in time and space, consequently the voltage on the bus is not the same everywhere because the signal moves along the bus with a finite velocity. This is different than a DC bus where the voltage is the same all along the bus. When the rise (or fall) time of a signal is shorter than the travel time on the bus, transmission line effects must be considered. Thus, as the bus gets longer, the travel time increases giving rise to transmission line effects. (1) On model railroad buses, this length is about 30 feet (9 meters) when transmission line effects come into play. When the signal reaches the end of the bus (transmission line) if the bus is not terminated in the impedance of the bus, the signal will be reflected. This, added to the incident signal, 15 volts becomes 30 volts, enough to destroy a decoder. To suppress the reflected voltage, a resistor, typically 100 ohms is attached across the far END of the bus. This is called a termination load. Because a resistor sits across the bus, it will constantly dissipate power. To minimize the power, a capacitor is added in series, blocking DC voltage, and the terminator functions only when needed-on the rise and fall of the signal. Thus at first blush, it looks like a bus filter. The capacitor is a DC filter for the termination, not the bus. Calling the termination a filter or a snubber only confuses the issue and hides the actual function. In summary, a good overall systems book just be careful of some of the basic electrical theory. (1) "Transmission Lines for Digital and Communication Networks", Richard E. Matick, IEEE Press, 1995

Good

Excellent seller. Shipped fast, packed well, and communications are excellent! I would gladly work with them again 👻

Good read for me

As described, arrived earlier than expected

The box has good information in it. That information is just not in a very orderly fashion. All the information is verry relevent but to be talking dc cabs the to go into dcc then the next chapter go back to dc and on and on. Better to get the fundamentals dow first and explain it all in dc cab then with the knowledge of the basics explain how to do it all in dcc. Model Raloading books has 2 other great books on dcc that this book can confuse the beginner railroader with information that they just are not ready for. I do think though that making controller panels and wiring should be more towards the begining, photo references are sometimes 2 pages back so dificult to reference and some ilistations such as page 32, #17 are hard to tell what is being done. I would like to see this information restrucored and prohaps devided into a separate book for just the dc cab wiring techniques

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Este livro contém muitas informações importantes para quem esta iniciando no ferromodelismo DCC. Requer tempo e atenção para ler como também para transcrever as informações. Recomendo.

Very informative

Aunque está un poco desfasado y localizado en Norteamérica. Los consejos que aporta nunca pasan de moda. Tanto para DC como de DCC. Trata todos los temas, muy variados; desde lo básico a lo avanzado. Recomendado si estás empezando en esto.

This is an excellent book on a subject that to some people (Me included) is like black magic. It is easy to understand and follows basic rules. However, one word of caution. This is an American publication by Kalambach ''Model Railroader'', which means that some of the term and values (electrical) are different than those in the UK. Having said that this is an excellent book on a subject which is not always easily understood. Recommended reading.