@Vernon Barry posted:Positive effect. Both for power of the engine, but also shaping of the RF TMCC radio signal. Both rails being connected changes the way the radio signal lobes around the track. Think like it being a giant foam pool noodle.
Again, the RF signal would center differently around one rail VS 2 rails.
Actually, that's not really accurate. TMCC depends on the physical connection to the rail to bring the signal directly to the TMCC receiver, the antenna is the one that you have to consider RF characteristics for.
The late Dale Manquen describes it much better than I ever would, so I've attached a printout of the web page from his old site that discusses the TMCC signals. I'd link to the site, but it has long since disappeared from the web.