Switch wiring

[JimC2]

Hi,

New formum member and first post here. Hi to all.  I am starting a new Garden Railroad in anticipation of retiring at the end of the year.  I have one question after reading over the forum.  I have a number of LGB switches that I had from a much previous road in another state and I will be using them.  What gauge of wire should I use for the control lines for these switches?   

The longest run will be about 50-60 feet from the power source and I am laying electrical conduit next to the tract for this and other wiring.  I thought about using Cat5 cable but I am worried it might be too light.  I have a ton of it. Thanks!

[Greg Elmassian]

 Cat 5 has 4 pairs, you need 3 wires, so you could double up the pairs and get 3 heavier wires... I think you might be ok, depending on the power supply and the condition of your switch machines.

It would be simple to take a 60 foot length, and test it out...

Regards, Greg

[ansley]

Greg Elmassian

 Cat 5 has 4 pairs, you need 3 wires, so you could double up the pairs and get 3 heavier wires... I think you might be ok, depending on the power supply and the condition of your switch machines.

It would be simple to take a 60 foot length, and test it out...

Regards, Greg

Greg, I know you have a lot of experience with Large scale (love your web pages!), however, all of my LGB switch machines (about 14 of them), have only two wires, they have the orange and white dots on the end. Only the VERY old LGB switches use 3 wires. I think the old ones are from like the 70's, maybe early 80's. Another suggestion, if the cat 5 doesn't work out. I use speaker wire on some of mine, but only run indoors about 30 feet so far. Ted

[dwbeckett]

I use alarm wire on two of mine 1 is about 50ft the other is about 70 ft . I think the cat5 wire will work out just fine, But by all means test out a long section first that way your confidance level will go up or down before you pull 60ft of wire....

Dave

[ttrigg]

For my switches and remote uncouplers I use lawn irrigation wire.  It is designed to carry 24 v ac 500 feet. Depending upon how many switches are in a location I vary from 5 to 9 conductor wire.  It always has an odd number of conductors as it is designed to have a “common” ground wire.  My farthest switch is about 85 feet from my control panel and have never had electrical problems in over 7 years.

[Greg Elmassian]

Maybe I was not real clear... if you have a lot of Cat 5, then, for the switch machines that need 3 wires, then think of it this way, there is a blue pair, an orange pair, a green pair and a brown pair (usually)

solder the blue wires together... now you have "one" blue wire of TWICE the capacity (or half the resistance)

do this to the orange pair, and then connect all the green and brown wires together.

Now you effectively have 3 wires, 2 of double "thickness" and one of "quadruple" thickness.

That will help minimize voltage losses.

If you have 2 wire switch machines, connect all the blue and orange together, now connect all the green and brown wired together.

You wind up with 2 wires of "quadruple" thickness.

This technique is used when Cat 5 is available and you don't need all 8 wires.

Jim DID say " I have a ton of it."

Hope this clears any misunderstanding.

Regards, Greg

ansley

Greg Elmassian

 Cat 5 has 4 pairs, you need 3 wires, so you could double up the pairs and get 3 heavier wires... I think you might be ok, depending on the power supply and the condition of your switch machines.

It would be simple to take a 60 foot length, and test it out...

Regards, Greg

Greg, I know you have a lot of experience with Large scale (love your web pages!), however, all of my LGB switch machines (about 14 of them), have only two wires, they have the orange and white dots on the end. Only the VERY old LGB switches use 3 wires. I think the old ones are from like the 70's, maybe early 80's. Another suggestion, if the cat 5 doesn't work out. I use speaker wire on some of mine, but only run indoors about 30 feet so far. Ted

 

[JimC2]

I thank everybody for their reply. I had not thought of irrigation wiring and I like that idea since I won't have to run conduit then.  I'll likely use #14 or #12 low voltage wiring for track power along the line and shouldn't need conduit for that either.

 thanks again, Jim

[pimanjc]

I have used both irrigation wire and 22g solid core wire [from Radio Shack] with success. 

JimC