Trolleys and DCC

[ebtnut]

Has anyone tried running the Birney and/or Peter Witt on DCC powered by the overhead wire?  I've been working on installing a working trolley line on our club layout.  At the moment we are running it on straight DC off the rails while I get more of the overhead strung.  The plan is, once we get the two reverse loops working mechanically, is to go to DCC with the wire as one side and the track the other side of the circuit  Any need to consider changing out the trolley poles?  Are the trolley wheels sufficient to collect current from the wire reliably?  Any other pitfalls to look out for?

[richg]

Maintaining constant contact will be most important. The decoder will reset with the slightest power interruption which might be with the overhead wire.
With a slight interruption when running DC, it is usually not noticed.

Rich

[Bucksco]

I think it would be best to run the streetcars via DCC and having cosmetic overhead wires. Less chance of losing power and I like DCC.

[richg]

I have seen in the past a couple trolley layouts and you could see an occasional power interruption but very slight and hardly noticeable. With a decoder, the trolley will stop for maybe a few seconds as the decoder resets.
A good running loco on DC will hardly hiccup at a bad spot but with a decoder, it will stop until; the decoder resets. That has happened to us on our club layout when we were first starting up with DCC and comparing to DC. Most of the locos had flywheels and would coast over a bad spot but not with a decoder in it.

Rich

[Doneldon]

A good running loco on DC will hardly hiccup at a bad spot but with a decoder, it will stop until; the decoder resets. That has happened to us on our club layout when we were first starting up with DCC and comparing to DC. Most of the locos had flywheels and would coast over a bad spot but not with a decoder in it.
Rich

Rich-

I would think the locos would still coast through the brief power interruption and then reboot, causing a delay and a restart of the sound script. Am I mistaken?
                                                                                                                                                                      -- D

[richg]

A good running loco on DC will hardly hiccup at a bad spot but with a decoder, it will stop until; the decoder resets. That has happened to us on our club layout when we were first starting up with DCC and comparing to DC. Most of the locos had flywheels and would coast over a bad spot but not with a decoder in it.
Rich

Rich-

I would think the locos would still coast through the brief power interruption and then reboot, causing a delay and a restart of the sound script. Am I mistaken?
                                                                                                                                                                     -- D

Not in my experience and a few others I have read about. It might drift though the bad spot but it will still stop and reset. A good keep alive many times helps and TCS is doing their best to help with keep alive decoders. I have been reading some positive experiences.
DCC is continually evolving.
Now a trolley with overhead wire run by one of the new wireless systems would be a way to go. There are two maybe three systems out right now with RF wireless and battery/decoder for the loco. HO scale also.
You charge the battery or let it charge on a DCC system or DC layout. Completely independent. I am including this because the OP asked.

Rich

[Doneldon]

Rich-

Thanks for the information.

                                 -- D

[ebtnut]

Yardmaster - A couple of reasons we don't want to stay two-rail.  First, by having the wire be one side and the track the other, we don't have to worry about polarity reversing in the loops.  We want the trolley line  to be capable of continuous running during the seasonal open houses.  Second, trying to do all the street trackage with single-point turnouts, some of which are intended to be spring switches, is really hard to do in two-rail.  Finally, and this is just the purist in me, if you're going to go to all the work of stringing working overhead, it ought to provide the power as well. 

[richg]

Then all you have to do is have a good overhead system. Install a good stay alive system. Some Stay alive are capable of as much as three to five seconds of stay alive power. I have seen this before. Do a You Tube and Google search for stay alive DCC or keep alive DCC. There are at least a few hundred links out there.
This is model railroading.

Rich

[jward]

while powering off the overhead, and using both rails as a common return sounds good in theory, I can see a MAJOR problem: the wheelsets are designed to pick up current off both rails, of opposite polarities. to use both rails as a common will require a complete and total rewiring of any trolley used on this line. this is in addition to whatever wiring is necessary to add a working trolley pole.....

why is everybody so afraid of reverse loop wiring anyway? is isn't hard to do, in fact it would be much easier than the rewiring of each individual trolley car to operate on the line. with autoreversers, even operation through the loop will be simple. and an added bonus is that you can wire one of the rails in parallel with the overhead making your electrical pickup even more reliable....

[MarkInLA]

I think it was just yesterday I was thinking of what became of the traction enthusiasts ?. I see lots of old brass traction in a local train store and wonder if it will ever get sold being both analog and trolley, not related to by the younger set ...I would make it overhead contact, not 2 rail..Or, it just won't give you that 'feeling'...Catenary might need to be thicker than desired to ward off stall outs...Good luck ..Mark

[Doneldon]

ebt-

I'm with Rich on the power issue. If you were planning to run DC the power issues wouldn't be such a major consideration. But with DCC, and the probability of at least occasional power cuts at the catenary, putting power in the, rails is an almost must do. If you and your friends want to be of purists, put power in both the catenary and one rail. Nothing about doing it that way will interfere with continuous running during open houses or whatever.

                                                                                                                                                -- D

[Bas]

Simple solution...use a decoder with a good capacitor, and you will have no problems at all...If power is interrupted, the capacitor takes over untill connection is restored. Works perfectly for me.

Regards from the snowwhite swiss alps

Bas

[rondon47]

We have run Bachmann trolleys, both the Birney and the Peter Witts on overhead wire in DC and DCC and have not had any problems with them.  We have also adapted a couple of the cheap Bachmann Brill trolleys to run off the wire and they run remarkably well.

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
Contact George Huckabee at the Trolleyville Times.  He makes wonderful anti-fouling trolley poles adaptable to most models.
I've had the pleasure of seeing his club's layouts several times, and it operates flawlessly.
Have fun!
the Bach-man