DCC [staging] yard - powered or unpowered?

[David]

Maybe this is something the JRM guys have an opinon on - assuming a DCC layout (with DCC equipped trains, using Unitrack), is it preferable or what are the pros/cons to running feeder cables to all the tracks in a staging yard, so that trains in waiting are always powered on, or only power the mainline, letting power routing only deliver power to trains when switches are lined up to take them in and out of staging? Is there any negative effect to having all the trains powered up, if only a few are out on the layout (drain on the boosters, strain on the decoders?).

 

Would it make a difference if staging was visible vs. hidden (with power always on, trains in staging could have their lights turned on).

[Bernard]

I have my yard on a separate block and I have it powered. I haven't had any problems yet but the only thing I can thing of is having a lighted train in the yard and having the shell melt because of over heating. With the new DCC light kits that shouldn't happen.

[inobu]

Power routing into the yard prevents miss ques where as powered rails puts you one step closer to potential miss ques.

 

I think it boils down to how well operations are managed in the yard. You may want to base it on the skill level of the operator on your layout.

 

Inobu

[KenS]

Another thing to consider is how good the turnouts you use are at power routing.  Separate feeds to each track (which you can always put a switch on, at the cost of more wiring, if you're concerned about bulb-lighting heat) may be more reliable in some cases.

 

I'm eventually going to have to confront this issue for my storage tracks, and am leaning to switched feeds to each stub track. But I'll admit that the simplicity of power-routing turnouts is attractive (and I use unitrack #6 turnouts, which have been pretty reliable for me).

 

If I were doing visible storage, I think I'd want all tracks live all the time because of car lighting, but I might put a switch on the bus before it forks to all the tracks, so I could shut the whole thing down while using other parts of the layout.

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm not a big fan of power routed switches, but then again, I'm used to the Minitrix power routing, which is junk on the best of days. I have also had issues with Tomix turnouts refusing to work properly though. With that in mind, I would power each track.

 

I would probably also add some mechanism to be able to turn off the power per track. It could be as simple as a switch per track, or something like adding a circuit to the turnout control that would switch off power automatically, much like power routing would. Another option is to add function decoders in all cars so you can turn on/off the interior light at any time.

 

Prototypically, trains that are stored for extended periods won't have their lights on, however, trains stored only for cleaning or quick service will have their lights on.

 

Another thing to consider is power usage. A 16 car shinkansen with LED light in each car will use up some 300-350 mA, depending a bit on the lights used. Many DCC systems deliver about 3 Amps, so many tracks with long, lighted trains might require a booster.