@1drummer I have the 3rd Edition of Barry's book and it has a section on page 172 Missing the Watchdog Signal where it explains what happens when the TIU channel first sees track power, not TIU power. Does this help cross-reference to the copy you have?
This is/was all known and Barry did document it. It's not always easy to find exactly the information you need at any one time but it is there.
I'm sorry if I misled, most people who use DCS do implement blocks. That doesn't mean it won't ever work without them. Blocks do help DCS signaling. I like to run a pair of heavier gauge wire from a terminal strip at the TIU output out to a place on the layout where I can feed two or three blocks from. I use a small terminal strip there. Most of the wires from these small terminal strip are 16ga (I used what I had, 18ga is sufficient) and soldered to the track. I have no problem with a single pair of these feeding 20' of track, the point being you don't have to implement a big number of blocks
Your layout is coming along nice. I wanted to do around the room but I had too many room access places to contend with.
