Buy-N-Scale-Track-Layout-1.jpg' alt='Atlas Model Railroad Track Planning Software' title='Atlas Model Railroad Track Planning Software' />Click on the above to visit our featured advertisers.Tell them you saw their ad on Wiring for DCCRight Track Freeware is a layout planning program for the PC Windows only.The program allows you to design your dream layout using electronic templates.Cke1sts Trackplans Page This page is dedicated to the many model railroaders who dont have enough room to build a layout.Previous Page. Track Wiring.This is Part II. Go to Part IThere are several sections in this website that.This section, Part II, covers.For general wiring information, testing, and troubleshooting.Part I. The menu to the.Why should I use Atlas N scale track on my layout Atlas has been making N scale model railroad track for over 25 years.We are known throughout the world as one of.Connecting your track to your booster is covered in Booster.Network Wiring. Wiring your turnouts also.Be sure to become familiar with all these sections.They have recently been expanded to cover topics that are frequently.DCC. Q A forum. Finally, you may find the section.RECOMMENDATION Do Not Have a Common Rail or Common Wire Between.Booster Districts In traditional layout wiring, modelers frequently had.If you wired your DC layout this.DCC. Do. not do this.Do not connect any of your booster outputs together.This. too, can be a cause of booster fighting in the form of ground loops.Worse. You will blow decoders because two.V. This will fry most decoders.Most. manufacturers tell you not to have a common rail or a common wire between.Im just mentioning it.If you have an existing layout, you will need to cut.Make sure you dont forget to.Understand that this problem existed in the old DC world as well.You didnt notice it for two reasons.One, you usually didnt have both throttles up so high that even if two power packs added together, they wouldnt add up to a damaging voltage.Understand that with DCC, you always have full voltage, about 1.V in HO, on your track.The second reason you didnt see the problem in the DC world was that motors are more forgiving of temporary over voltage.Electronics in decoders, electronics anywhere really, cannot stand even a brief over voltage.Boosters can add together in common rail if 1.This can easily happen if you are making your own cables.You will read in the section on.This is different than connecting.The grounds of your boosters should be.Determining Which Rail is Blue or Red, A or B, or Which is Which If you have a complex railroad or just have trouble visualizing where your wires will go, you will like this simple idea.Just paint the sides of a car with the colors of the wires you intend to use to wire your railroad.Then run it around your layout and mark your benchwork.If you dont want to ruin a car, paint a block of wood.If wiring just isnt your thing and you are particularly nervous about what you are doing, I highly recommend you do this.You may find that you have a reversing section that you didnt know about.See the section on reversing if this happens to you.SUGGESTION Dont Place Feeders Near the.End of a Short Block.If you have a very short block and will only have one.Not at one end or the.Dont sweat it if you cant get it right in the middle.There. is the ideal and then there is the practical.Aim for the ideal.SUGGESTION What Size Wire to Use for.Track Feeders I find 2.AWG solid makes great feeders stripped from.HO. It tucks nicely along the outside.If you attach a wire to every 3 1m section of track.AWG. Here are my suggestions.There. are no hard and fast rules about the wire size you should use.Try. to keep your feeders to about 6 in length or less especially.I suggest for your scale.When using the larger sizes suggested for your scale, try to keep your.Scale. Suggested Wire Sizes.AWGmm. 2 Smallest.Largest. Z2. 4. N2.HO2. 4. 2. 52. S,O2.G2. 0. 51. 4 2. Of course, if you want to use even bigger wires for feeders.I suggest that you use solid wire for your feeders.I. like solid wire because it is easy to wrap around a bus wire, it is.Use large wire sizes for mechanical strength.I like to use 1. 4 AWG wire for feeders.It will take a longer time before this wire corrodes through.A large wire is less likely to break off from a buried bus.Last. when you are digging around it, it will be more difficult to break.You may want to check out my section.If you are an ohm counter or live life three places past.AWG vs. metric wire size chart.The Great Feeder Experiment.Some modelers have a real phobia about the visibility of their feeders.So they have a desire to use the smallest feeder possible.So I ran an experiment to determine what size feeders were possible.I also determined the maximum length that could be used.There are several factors that affect what size feeder can be used.Most importantly is what size booster or short circuit protection you are using, the diameter and length of the desired feeder, and the size track you are using.To a lesser extent, assuming you are using heavy buses, is the length of the bus.I couldnt test all the possible combinations.So after I present the results of my experiment, Ill try to relate the results to the specifics you may be using.The most important factor in determining the proper operation of your wiring is that the booster be able to trip when there is a short.For more on this topic, see my section on testing the adequacy of your wiring.Here is the test setup I used.I used my 5. A booster Digitrax DB1.HO mode, Track voltage1.V. To that, I added a 2.AWG bus. The exact length of a heavy bus like this one should have little impact on the proper operation of your booster.So if your bus is the recommended maximum of 3.I screwed the 1. 4 AWG bus to a terminal strip as well as the feeder wires.The feeder wires were then soldered to the track.Yeah, in conducting this experiment, I did a lot of soldering and desoldering This experiment did take some time to conduct.Nickel Silver track is very popular with modelers.While it oxidizes very slowly making it very popular, it is not the best conductor in the world.Especially in N and Z, the distance from the short to the feeder connection can have an impact on whether the booster will successfully shut down.Elsewhere in this website I recommend that every piece of track should be soldered to something, so on my layout, the maximum distance to a feeder is 3.I used a 3. 6 piece of Atlas HO flex track to conduct this experiment.For my N scale tests, I used a 3.Peco flex track. Experiment Set Up.The results of my experiment are tabulated below.In order to receive a Yes, that the booster tripped, the booster had to trip immediately upon my shorting the track three times.If the booster did not trip immediately or did not trip all three times I shorted it, the result was Marginal.In wiring your layout, you should avoid marginal results.If the booster did not trip, it received a No.HO Flex Track AWGmm.YYYYY1. 3mYYYYY2.YYYYY3. 9mYYYYY41.YYMNN61. 8mMMNNN3.N Flex Track AWGmm.YYYYY1. 3mYYYYY2.YYYYY3. 9mYYMNN41.YYMNN61. 8mNNNNNTest Results.Y Yes, Booster Trips.M Marginal, Booster Trips Sometimes or after a long delay.N No, Booster Did Not Trip.Wire size is across the top.Feeder length is down the side.Length of feeder specified is distance from bus to track.As I mentioned at the outset, there are a number of variables that affect when your booster will trip.Here are some things to consider if your situation is different than the ones in my experiment.Without running an experiment of your specific setup, I cannot predict with certainty what the results will be.Obviously, the recommend feeder sizes and lengths at the top of this section are more conservative than the results of my experiment might indicate.If you follow the recommended sizes, you should always have a well operating layout.If you follow the results of my experiment, you may be getting close to the limit.If you do this, you should alwaystest the adequacy of your wiring with the quarter test over your entire layout that means every inch or mm of itBooster size The smaller lower amperage rating the booster you use, the higher the total resistance can be.Also, the larger the booster, the lower the total resistance can be tolerated.If you are using a smaller booster, such as a 3.A booster, you might be able to use the next longer length feeder tabulated above, the next smaller size of feeder, or a longer run of track.If using a larger booster, such as an 8.A booster, you will need to use shorter feeders or larger feeders.Note that an 8. A booster, without short circuit protection, is not recommended for HO and smaller scales. Download De Ebooks Em Portugues Portugal Vs Poland . Different scales Z scale should follow closely to N scale.In Z and N, you should have frequent feeders, every 3 6 feet, as the track has high resistance and the booster will not be able to shut down if you go too far.Apartment HO Layout Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine Having fun with model trains.Thank you everyone for your input.It helps. I cant find an apartment until I find a job so I dont know where I will be moving to.But my dream is to find an inexpensive 2 bedroom apartment.That would be great as I have alot of stuff I would have to find room for.Yes, I would be by myself.I bought How to build small model railroads by MR and there are 2 layouts that I really like, Oklahoma and Western and Indiana and Aurora.Since I am a novice at layout design, could anyone tell me how to take these two plans and come up with a track plan using code 8.Atlas snap track Ill also ask in some of the other forums.I have always used Atlas code 1.
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