I am new to the railroad business and excited to finally have a railroad of my own. I have my benchwork pretty much complete. I have two Bachmann locomotives, the Thunder Chief and the Echo Valley. I did a test run and they both work fine. Now I'm looking at switches and how to power them and do the wiring. Can anyone point me to a wiring manual/book that will get me started in the right direction?
DCC turnouts don't require any wiring if you want to go that direction and you can throw them from anywhere using your DCC system (ie EZ Command or Dynamis).
If you're talking about wiring switches that aren't already equiped for DCC, both Digitrax and NCE make fixed decoders for controlling slow motion and solinoid type switch machines.
This site, http://www.wiringfordcc.com/ (http://www.wiringfordcc.com/) will tell you just about anything you want to know about wiring a DCC layout.
Len
Thank you guys for responding. I am using Bachmann EZ track silver nickel and the 4 turn outs that I have, have wiring coming from the bottom and there is a small box under the turnout. Also the power system I have, I have 2, they came with the train sets, do not incorporate any wiring other than the track. Can I use the dcc power source, the extra one to operate the turnouts?
The turnout you describe is not DCC decoder equipped. Use the accessory AC terminals of a DC model train power pack to power the switch machine in the E-Z Track Turnout.
Click Here (http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/HO__6_Turnouts_Instructions.pdf) for turnout instructions. Read all the instructions do not depend only on the illustrations.
You can also use a wall wart type transformer rated 12 to 16 volts output at 500 milliamps (mA) up to 1 amp instead of the model train power pack. Either AC or DC output wall wart transformer will work.