Ugh, More Rewiring

I upgraded my DCC system from an NCE PowerCab to an SB5 once it became plain that even as a single operator, adding load to the system in the form of sound locos, current-extending capacitors, stationary and lighting decoders required more power than the PowerCab could handle. Not long before I upgraded to the SB5, I finished the job of extending a 14AWG DCC power bus around the whole layout. However, this simply supplemented, it didn't replace, the 22AWG DC block wiring that was as old as 30 years.

What I found was there was a current drain in one of the oldest parts of the layout, not enough to trip the overload on the SB5, but enough to lower the voltage in the area to 3-5 volts from the 14 needed for full DCC. As best I can figure, some insulation on the old wiring had worn through, or an unprotected solder joint on the old wiring was close enough to another that there was a near short.

So I had a long troubleshooting effort: for each isolated former DC block, I had to disconnect the former DC wiring until I got a reading of 0 volts on my multimeter. Then I reconnected that block to the new DCC power bus terminal strip. So I gradually restored the main line to 14 volts all around. Here's a photo illustrating the effort, a multimeter with a UP hi-rail ruck right over a new solder joint on the rail, with a foam scenery liftout behind it.

I still have to reconnect some sidings and industrial leads to the DCC power bus.