Power feed

[Buckeye Riveter]

My layout is wired exactly as Bob described.  I use this to tap the feeder wires into the main power wires. Of course, I keep mine red to red and black to black unlike the picture below.

I call them suit case taps but they are called Wire Taps .  I have yet to have one go bad on the layout or the boat trailer.  On the boat trailer they are submerged occasionally, too.

[First Timer]

Bob, This is very helpful, thank you very much. The very first thing I did was run separate wires. What a pain that was. glen

[lionelsoni]

How many feeders you have has nothing to do with having one transformer.  You can have as many as you need.  I recommend using no smaller than 14 AWG wire, which you can find in a variety of colors at any home-improvement store.  Stranded or not stranded makes no electrical difference and is purely a matter of convenience.  You don't need to run a separate pair of wires for each feeder.  You can run a single pair around the layout and tap into it wherever needed.  You can use a few inches of smaller wire for the taps if that is easier than connecting 14 AWG to the track.

[willpick]

The rule of thumb I use is to have a power feed every 6-10 sections of track. That way, the engine is no more than 30-50 inches from a feed. I also added extra feeds where I have back to back switches(like yards & crossovers). Gargraves sells power connectors that slip into the rail from underneath, they make a pretty good connection. I'm using Ross track on my new layout, and may use a homemade version of them, If I don't solder to the rails--

[First Timer]

Thank you for the reply. I am currently using fastrak from Lionel as of now but will be switching to Gargraves as soon as my benchwork is done.

[dougdagrump]

Just for the heck of it I would add two more, essentially placing one 1/4 of the total track length apart. Depending on what type of track you are using the cost of additional connections is very little. Hope this helps.

[First Timer]

Hi guys, its me again. I just wanted to ask a question. I was running my new MTH hudson and noticed that the locomotive seems to loose power at some parts of the track. I was told that in order to solve this problem I have to add another feed at least tot the other end of the track or where it looses juice. Now my question is, how much feed can I put since I am only using one Z1000 transformer? I tried adding one feed on the other side and I see that it helped. But I still have some week spots. My layout is just an oval roughly 18 by 8.