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Wiring The Track For The First Time
Chris is planning an HO DCC layout and writes:
“I had an O scale friend of mine tell me that when you wire the layout you should run electricity to the track every 2 to 3 feet throughout the layout. I’ve only ever known to wire it to one part of the layout. He said that wiring it to multiple parts takes away the hesitation the engine has as it goes through different stretches of railroad. Does anybody know if this is correct?”
SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION
The first layout I did I only had 1 point of power, had no end of problems.
The 2nd layout I wired every single track length and points, from a bus wire underneath, and have never had a problem, it guarantees a continual feed to the whole layout.
Hesitation is not the problem –
Perhaps the fish plates are not making good connection between sections, both track to track and at each end of a switch. Also you want to distribute the wire connections around so you do not have voltage drops from long runs of wire. For a 5 amp system the main bus must be at least AWG 14. 10 amps uses AWG 12. “Droppers are about 20-22 gage and soldered from your rail at some point down to a connection on the main bus lines – -about every 6 feet.
Note – this main bus is NOT A LOOP – but open so that there are 2 ends to it. This avoids signal reflection as the dcc signal comes from 2 different ends and can lead to confusing the decoder.
it all depends on the amount of track you have i have a 12×16 layout and i have 4 main lines for current on all 4 sides and that seems to be enough power
Hi Jacques,
Just to clarify….Are you saying you provide power to the rails at 4 spots on your layout midway on each side? Do you run those wires to the transformer via a bus? What AWG do you use? Scale, O, HO, N?
Thanks much,
Joe
The longer the piece of track,means that there is more resistance in the length, therefore adding extra supply points shortens the length and cutting down the resistance. This is highlighted in airfield lighting when great distances mean greater resistance. This is overcome by step up transformers throughout the circuit.
Thanks everybody, this layout is 13 x 22 feet, And so far I’ve done it with only one power input, so it looks like I’m gonna try to add several more feeds from the main bus line. Any other advice is much appreciated.
Also yes I saw that you were supposed to use 14 gauge to the transformer and then a model railroad video mentioned using 18 gauge from the bus line. Thoughts? Also I’ve started soldering all the joints between the rails to try to keep the connection strong.
Chris, this is a hobby and experience will lead us to the optimum; there are no “supposed too’s” but lots of recommendations. Have a happy new year.
The reason for voltage loss as you get further from the power connection is that the rails and the track clips oxidize over time and/or distance from where the power connects to the track. I use a rule that every track over a yard should have a power connection. Initially with new tracks the problem is not visible but after a period of months you will begin to see the oxidation on the track clips. If you use isolating track clips ever so many feet and connect a pair of wires to each section you will also reduce voltage loss over distance. You can use the same voltage source but make sure that you get the same rail connected with the same transformer terminal.
Thanks again everyone. Good information. I’ll be rewriting the layout today and will post results once completed. Even a video if that’s doable.
Waiting multiple spots is working well!! The less expensive dcc engines are having no problem anywhere but the broadway limited is struggling over many parts of the track. I never realized how much more challenging the triple wheeled engines were.
Very simply: electrical cable is better at conducting electricity than rails. Rails have higher resistance. Therefore, longer lengths of track without power connections result in trains slowing down, due to track resistance reducing the voltage to the loco..