I posted this elsewhere on the site and have not gotten a response. Don't ask why I didn't post it in this catagory to start with but here I am now. I'm really hoping somebody can help me out with this relatively simple probably stupid question.
I'm new to model Railroading aside from playing with toys when I was a kid. I'm running DCC and am working on getting my track layed out, with that nearly done I'm getting close to wiring and have run into a question.
Do Insulated Atlas code 80 turnouts need to be isolated from the rest of the track? I've found countless instructions on how to wire a track and every one of them seems to show each leg of the turn out being isolated from the rest of the track to prevent shorts. One thing that doesn't make sense is that if all these different feeders that are powering the track all run off the same buss won't a short still take down everything.
I plan to run a main buss line using 12ga and run feeder drops every 3-4ft using 20ga wire tied into the main buss probably using terminal strips unless I cheap out and just decide to solder it all together instead.
Any help would be appreciated here, thanks in advance and I look forward to getting in knee deep in this hobby.
I'm new to model Railroading aside from playing with toys when I was a kid. I'm running DCC and am working on getting my track layed out, with that nearly done I'm getting close to wiring and have run into a question.
Do Insulated Atlas code 80 turnouts need to be isolated from the rest of the track? I've found countless instructions on how to wire a track and every one of them seems to show each leg of the turn out being isolated from the rest of the track to prevent shorts. One thing that doesn't make sense is that if all these different feeders that are powering the track all run off the same buss won't a short still take down everything.
I plan to run a main buss line using 12ga and run feeder drops every 3-4ft using 20ga wire tied into the main buss probably using terminal strips unless I cheap out and just decide to solder it all together instead.
Any help would be appreciated here, thanks in advance and I look forward to getting in knee deep in this hobby.