Smoothness at slow speeds also depends on age of an engine. I have 2 1992 or so Weaver diesels, upgraded to PS2, that will crawl at 1SMPH. They are, let us say, well broken in.
FWIW, my layout is wired very oddly, because it was built long before DCS, for conventional operations, with some 70+/- toggle-switched blocks, each switch on a central control panel. These are fed from 6 transformer channels, now through 2 TIUs, one using all 4 channels and the other only the variables. The two fixed are fed from a Z4000 with the Z4k receiver. Two variables are fed by a PW ZW, and 2 by a PH180.
Common is a 12-gauge looped buss, with feeds wherever needed to tracks & accessories. By looped, I mean that when the buss leaves the U-posts, it goes in two directions, meeting at the far end of the layout.
Hot feed goes from a TIU output to the control panel, where it feeds all of the toggle switches for blocks on that channel. From each toggle switch, 14-gauge goes to the particular block.
I do not run the common/ground throught the TIUs, but all black TIU outputs are connected to the common buss; nothing on TIU black inputs. This is to avoid overloading any TIU internal circuits; I do not have the time to go into a long discussion of why I do this.
Violates all the "laws" that have been dreamed up for wiring DCS, but bottom line: 10s everywhere, and conventional can also be run. Often I have 6 DCS trains running on intersecting routes, including 3 on one 0.9 scale mile loop.but that keeps me on my toes. Also occasionally run conventional and DCS at same time on same track, but that's more work than fun.
