sure you can us DC

but sound's like you've completed wiring.   maybe difficult to isolate shorts if there is more than one.   may need to isolate sections of the layout, both the track connections as well as bus connections

i wired up a caboose with some LEDs and used it to check wiring with DCC as I wires.   no reason you couldn't power the track with DCC

@ Brian, I agree with Greg wholeheartedly,

testing should be done during wiring, not after.  I use a battery and a buzzer (actually, an old battery-operated smoke alarm with a pair of alligator clips on leads) when wiring track to sub-busses and busses; I get immediate feedback when I make a mistake that way, for whatever reason; I'm in the habit of occasionally intentionally shorting wires temporarily, to ensure my detection circuit is still functional; it only takes a second to put my pliers across the rails, or flip a wire end onto the incorrect buss wire.  It takes only a few seconds to set this up when I start a wiring campaign.  I can test all of my busses at the circuit breaker outputs (or at auto-reverser outputs, if a circuit has one).  I can also check to ensure buss zone isolation (either by checking at the breaker outputs, or by checking across the actual gaps that should be isolated), which is as important to long-term success as finding short circuits.  If you're wiring and not testing as you go, you're creating a future nightmare...

I prefer not to power my layout with the DCC system(expensive) when wiring, it's just a habit I have from working on higher-voltage circuits.  The battery and buzzer(cheap!) technique works fine.

I hope for your sake all the wiring you've done so far was perfect, as finding one or more miswired feeder(s) can take hours on a complex layout, and result in a lot of unnecessary divide-and-conquer effort to narrow down the problems.

Just an opinion

Blair

Hmm... adding LEDs to a caboose to create a power detector...

I've seen DCC power detectors available as separate items, but the idea of just wiring up an LED or two in a caboose certainly sounds appealing.  Sounds like I've got a new thing to do as I put together a few caboose kits I've been slowly working on.

I've already planned to break my DCC power bus into sections that will be connected at each end with plugs, so whether it's DCC or DC being fed into it, locating shorts will be easier.    I picked up two packages of 5 pairs of connectors for $5 each at Home Depot.  Ideal Brand Orange Ballast Disconnects - work with AWG 12-18 gauge wire.


Janet N. 

I always test as I go with

I always test as I go with DC.

I've tried to be very careful

I've tried to be very careful with getting all of the feeders onto the buss wires correctly. And I have not yet connected all sections of the buss wires, so I hoped to test 'sections' of my work separately.

I'm just a little nervous with this DCC subject,...don't want to smoke any decoders, short out any locos on turnouts, of ruin any of my dcc control boards,...etc.    Nervous is likely the correct word. I think I have a mental block I have created when it comes to advanced electronics.

Testing with a DC supply,

Does it tell you when you short it, or just melt things?  A battery and buzzer will give you an audible sound, even when you're hanging upside down tracing wires.  It's really not that hard to test with a battery and buzzer.  Or for that matter, a newfangled DVM with an audible continuity setting.  If you're that dead set on not using your expensive DCC system as a crude continuity tester, which I don't like doing either, then a DVM or old buzzer and 9V battery is the solution.

Blair

I feel your pain, Brian……..

Been there, done that!  
 

Hopefully you have your layout wired into districts and each is protected by a breaker such  as DCC Specialties PSX. Using DCC from your command station, these are safe and will instantly trip if you have a short.   You only need to search out a short in the district that trips its breaker. 
 

Peter

Yes, you can

I too, test with DC on new construction.  Even when DCC is being use i use a DC Auto tester to check for dead spots.

Bob Harris

  "Can I just hook up a good

Yes, it would work for testing the wiring and the trackwork with a non DCC equipped engine. I've done this in the past but usually just hook up the DCC as I do the wiring and test with it. The key is test every piece of new track and wiring as you install it. I keep a test train handy and run it over all the new track when i finish a work session, this way you know if there is a problem it is in the just installed portion so pretty easy to figure out what happened.....DaveB