Got the DCC System

Bought a Digitrax Zephyr Digital Command and Control System. The cool thing about the Zephyr is that it does advance consisting, has 2 or 4 digit addressing and will allow you to use two dc throttles as extra cabs.  It will operate one dc loco at a time and up to 9999 decoder equipped locos. It can also program and read back programs written on decoders such as speed tables. This allows you to have  all your locomotives have a similar throttle response regardless of the manufacturer.
But as with any dcc system you need decoder equipped locomotives

This brings up a problem! If you have an older Atlas loco that is not “DCC Ready” then you need to wire a decoder into it…. there is a new solution from TCS that makes this so much easier. The CN-GP split board decoder (pictured above). since I have one of these older Atlas locos, I purchased one. The install went pretty easily, while far from plug and play it was not very difficult. The decoder runs smoother than the other decoder I have in an Atlas “DCC Ready” loco and does so due to the fact that the motor wires are soldered to the brush housings.
While I needed a good control system I also needed an auto reverser. The Digitrax AR-1 was the answer.

This Picture is a view of the wiring junction and Diagram under the front edge of the layout. You can see the AR-1 towards the back. To install the AR-1 I mounted it to the bottom of the layout with four screws and connected it, between the power and the block that I wanted to auto reverse.
The thing works like a charm. The locos move over the crossovers seamlessly without so much as a pause. This thing sure beats wiring DPDT switches and having to manually operate them.