Before starting my project, I set up a small test bed to make certain that I understood how to wire BD20s together with Atlas universal signal boards. The first thing it taught me was the importance o

Definitely have 5 volts.

I've been pretty scrupulous about having feeders attached to every section of track. For my amusement this afternoon, I'll be taking a close look at every wire connection. Unfortunately, I wasn't suff

Interesting. Thanks for forwarding.

Allan, I've tried a variety of "winding" strategies, but without success. When I talked with NCE's technical support fellow the other day, he was pretty skeptical about the feasibility of 25' blocks.

Actually, I haven't had any problems ... no runaway locos, no messed up DCC signals. I was simply wondering whether taping wires together might serve as a substitute for twisting. I have far too many

Recently, I had to remove several track feeders that were connected to my layout's bus with scotchlok connectors. Removing the scotchlok connectors, however, inevitably results in open punctures of th

I did not twist my power bus when I installed it, but the two wires for the most part are fairly close together and easily could be taped together. While I suspect that this would have the same effect

I had this problem a couple years ago with a new Atlas turnout. Everything that could be viewed was in spec. The problem had to be caused by some part that was embedded in the turnout’s plastic.

I accidentally (don’t ask) used 14 AWG stranded on one power district that is roughly 30 feet long. It worked fine for trains but it was not robust enough to carry DCC commands to Smail switch motors.

Dave, Thanks for your response. I hate to admit it, but after looking very closely at my wiring, I discovered that I had inadvertantly grabbed the wrong gauge wiring from my wiring bin when installing

My railroad is divided into four power districts. Track voltage is identical in all four districts. Regardless of power district all locos respond properly to commands in each power district. If I con

At least on my NCE system, the programming track will not work until it is commanded to be "on." At which the rest of the layout is "off." Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Alan, Your proposed piece on signal block wiring diagrams would be very helpful. It's taken me a lot of digging to find documentation of this sort. Let me suggest that you take particular care when re

Alan, Thanks for your help on this. I have only one follow-up question. You indicate the "blue" wire should run from Tortoise terminal 4 to common. But common on what? A rail? Common on the Atlas sign

All are running, but it's hard for me to keep track of more than four that are in motion.

I use the same NCE PowerPro for a 20x20 dogleg layout with several hundred feet of track plus some 20 Tortoise powered turnouts and over a dozen locos. It’s hard for me to imagine that you might need

When I'm further along on this project, I intend to write a crystal- clear "how-to-do-it" with pictures, tips and tricks. Signaling is not difficult by any means, but so much of the literature is just

After a lot of crawling under benchwork, I found the culprit ... a turnout that was not rewired after creating the signal block bus. Unfortunately,retrofitting a signal system in a well established la

You've given me an idea. Before testing again, I will remove every car/loco off the track.