Analog and DCC coexisting

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Can I run anolog and DCC at the same time on the same block? From everything Ive read I think the answer is no. But the guy at my local hobby shop is telling me I can wire my layout as one big block with multiple feeders and run one run one anolog train from an anolg supply wired while simultaneously running other trains on DCC. I don't think this is correct but thought I ha better check before telling him he was nuts :-)}

tom

-- Tom Hopkins (tomhopkins@cox-internet.com), August 14, 2002

Answers

Your hobby shop guy's advice (if you understood him correctly) is a recipe for disaster.

You can run analog on one block and DCC on another, but you MUST ensure that a train does not cross the boundary between an analog block and a DCC block or that the analog and DCC systems do not get connected to each other by some other means. You can protect the analog and DCC systems by putting an 1153 automotive lamp in series with the analog pack but it would be better to figure out a scheme that prevents boundary crossings from happening.

Dale.

-- Dale Gloer (dale.gloer@sympatico.ca), August 15, 2002.


>Your hobby shop guy's advice (if you understood him correctly) is a >recipe for disaster.

Thanks for the response. You hit the nail on the head.

I went back in there last night and it turns out that when he said I could run and analog train with an analog throttle on a nonblocked layout simultaneously with a dcc setup, he was talking about a scenerio with a non-dcc train coded as 00 on the digitrax dcc system being controlled by a dc throttle jumped to the system using digitrax's special capabilities.

Im glad I pursued full understanding before wiring it up :-)}

tom

-- Tom Hopkins (tomhopkins@cox-internet.com), August 15, 2002.


please look at the dcc or d.c. or both article by bob savino in the december 2003 edition of railroad model craftsman. it explains how to use relays to select either a booster or power pack

-- henry p. sullivan (resevoir@mail.com), November 20, 2003.

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