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Parallel Track Buss within a Power Buss

 

Greetings,
I have a Power Buss that has five Power Districts. Four of the PDs are protected by Circuit Breakers (a Digitrax PM42) and one is protected by a PSX-AR. Three of these PD's need to travel about 12 feet from the Breaker Panel to the tracks they feed. So that is three sets of twisted wire that will be running parallel to each other. Should they be separated, or can they run in a bundle?
Thank you,
Michael Boyle
 

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Michael Boyle inquires:

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¡°I have a Power Buss that has five Power Districts. Four of the PDs are protected by Circuit Breakers (a Digitrax PM42) and one is protected by a PSX-AR. Three of these PD's need to travel about 12 feet from the Breaker Panel to the tracks they feed. So that is three sets of twisted wire that will be running parallel to each other. Should they be separated, or can they run in a bundle?¡±

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I supported a layout for thirteen years with multiple bus pairs from circuit breakers (PSX) out to remote locations where they were split into connections to the local blocks within the each of the PDs.? In all that time we never detected any issues with this installation.? The individual pairs were twisted 3 ¨C 5 times per foot, the three pairs were cabled together.

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The professional power and signal guys might have differing opinions, but I don¡¯t recall any objections to this approach ever being on list.

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Best regards,

?

Steve

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Steve Haas

Snoqualmie, WA

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Thanks Steve,
That's what I am hoping will work.
- Michael
 

Michael, it should work fine. We have similar situations on our layout, and much longer runs. Everything works well, Jerry Michels Amarillo Railroad Museum
 

All those power bus wires should have almost identical pairs of signals, especially if powered by a single booster. There should be no problem running them bundled.?

The only time I can imagine any likely issues is for something very out of the ordinary, such as a short from one of the buses to AC power or very close by lightning strike, creating enormous fault currents. But, in such a case, there will be other, greater problems than erratic train control...

Don W

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Don Weigt
Connecticut
 

Mike,
? The real problems come when you mix buses of 'unlike types' ... such as track power with
detection, lighting, or accessories.? Keep your DCC with your DCC and you should (dare I
say "will"?) have no problems.
? This ASSUMES you are using twisted pair wiring for your DCC.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?- Jim

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