Power connections

[bogpondrail]

I'm in the process of laying my first ourside G-scale track and would like suggestions as to how and best methods to connect electrical power to the track.

[ttrigg]

Dick;

In the past few weeks there have been several threads here about track wiring.  In general any direct bury low voltage wire will do the job, connected every 100 ft or so.  For more details look at the older threads.

[EMPIRE II LINE]

Now if you are going to use MTH's DCS system, that is another thing, so look at all of the recent threads on that too....

Byron 

[altterrain]

I use 16 or 14 (for longer runs) gauge low voltage landscape wire with a soldered ring terminal on the end.

 

I then connect them to spots where I have split jaw rail clamps.

 

Hillman's will work also, but they use a smaller screw so you need a smaller ring terminal.

-Brian 

 

[two tone]

You Guys suprise me that you need to add extra power every 100 ft or so I run over 400ft and only use 1 input. If youve got a good power supply and good rail connections thats all you should need i run anolouge do not know a lot about MTS so as I say if you need more than 1 input look for a better input and good controller. I use the train engineer with this I can cotrol all my turn outs and run my locos with no problems..   but each to his own

[altterrain]

You Guys suprise me that you need to add extra power every 100 ft or so I run over 400ft and only use 1 input. If youve got a good power supply and good rail connections thats all you should need i run anolouge do not know a lot about MTS so as I say if you need more than 1 input look for a better input and good controller. I use the train engineer with this I can cotrol all my turn outs and run my locos with no problems..   but each to his own

brass track with soldered jumpers or rail clamps all around? 

[emipapa]

Bogpondrail,

I also live on Cape Cod, I use a rail clamp with the wire soldered into a wire-end and then placed under the allen machine screw of the rail clamp as a previous post showed. By the way WELCOME to the forum.

Ron

[Anonymous]

Frog at da Swamp

[Anonymous]

Frog at da Swamp

[two tone]

No I use normal fish plates and graphite grease, as iv`e said never had any problems Been running for over 3 years now and iv`e made changes to layout always pinch fish plates before connecting them and a bit of grease. Give 100% running no breaks in power out put around the layout. Metere gives me same reading no matter where I test it 

[markperr]

Both split-jaw and Hillman make a single screw type track connector that you can place between any pair of ties.  They incorporate the ring terminal as mentioned by Brian. They're relatively inexpensive, couple bucks.

Mark

 

 

[Greg Elmassian]

The frequency of power feeds depends on a lot of things.

If you run DC track power, the inevitable voltage drop is compensated by some more throttle.

If you run a system that has constant power to the rails, the drop is more noticable in my opinion.

Also, stainless steel needs more feeds since it is about 10 times less conductive, thus the voltage drop will be more pronounced.

The number of locos you run, i.e. the current drawn also makes a big difference, since the voltage drop is directly proportional to the current.

I run stainless steel, and DCC (constant voltage) so I found power feeds ever 20-30 feet are necessary.

Also, voltage drops "through" switches can be pretty large, often the wires in the switch that "jump" the power "through" it can be of pretty small gauge, adding to the voltage drop.

Regards, Greg