Questions about feeder wires

[tpd0418]

Hi,

I would like some advice. Should feeder wires be solid or stranded? What gauge wire should I use?

Thank you!

PD

[jalajoie]

I will be helping a neighbor with the wiring of his layout and we plan to use #14 solid wire for the buzz and #20 solid wire for the feeders.

[loathar]

I used 20 gauge solid for my feeders. Solid will break easier if you bend it a lot, but how much bending of your feeders are you really going to do?? I found solid to be easier to solder to the rail and pull through the holes. Remember to solder to the outside of your rail.

[rrinker]

 I use solid for the feeders - easier to push down through the layout, and easier to keep tight against hte rail while soldering. I use stranded for the bus because it's a lot easier to pull through the benchwork - a lot more flexible than heavy gauge solid.

                                 --Randy

 

[selector]

Agreed.  I used old copper speaker wire, necessarily braided, that would probably rate 14 gauge...not really sure.  That was the bus, and for the reasons stated by Randy....dragging it through tiny holes in frame members and around corners.  All my feeders are the coloured four wires found in the spools of white vinyl covered wire that Radio Shack sold four years ago in 100' rolls.  They might be 22 gauge, again I don't know, but they are copper and solid.  I have had good results with them.

Braided feeders should work just fine.  I would mash the ends to splay the filaments and then tin them.  Then apply to the bottom of a joiner and give them a one second heat zap.  That should just about do it.

[mobilman44]

Hi!

Solid #20 is my choice for track feeders.  You can easily (as compared to stranded) get it through small holes in benchwork, and bend it to get next to the rail for easier soldering.  Oh yes, you will not *** your fingers as much!

Feeder Bus wires were solid # 18 on my DC layout (now almost totally disassembled) with the longest runs under 20 feet.  My new layout will be DCC, and I will use # 14 stranded for the feeder bus.

One related point, don't skimp on track feeders, and keep them short.

Mobilman44

[fkrall]

Let me tell you what I do to confuse you even more! Actually, my belief is--don't overthink it. There's a range of acceptable options; the one you select is a matter of personal choice.

I follow what I've read in MR recently, combined with Andy Sperandeo's guidance in Easy Model Railroad Wiring.  A short length of 22 gauge solid to the rail (usually 4", no more than 8"), spliced and soldered to about 9" of 18 gauge solid (no more than 12"--but I've never gone more than 9") to the bus.  The bus will be 14 gauge stranded--I'll run it shortly. Use very fine solder (.036 or thereabouts) and an iron with a narrow tip--35W should be fine. I selected solid or stranded for the reasons other posters have noted.

I work in HO; the big advantage of 22 gauge is the ease of making a discrete joint with the rail web, after a little practice. That same practice will enable you to solder to the inside of the rail--a tremendous convenience with hard-to-reach locations and turnouts. Although some believe it's overkill, I feed every discrete section of track, no matter how short. Yes, I do enjoy soldering, but I also believe it's good insurance to assure smooth distribution of power down the road.

Rick Krall 

[rrinker]

 That's one I NEVER understood - the three wires sizes. If you stay less than 12 total inches the loss in a piece of #22 is neglible. Plus you're putting feeders to every section of rail anyway. This is all I ever did and never had a problem,and while I don;t mind soldering, doing the extra to splice in a piece of #18 seems utterly pointless.

 I've leave out the part about how before I pulled the bus wire I just connected one pair of the #22 feeders right to my DCC system and had no problems running trains around the entire layout... The feeders wer ealready in palce all around the layout, I was certainly not goign to assume all the rail joiners would be sufficient, but I wanted to test runs traisn over the completed part and sure enough there was no slowing or anythign with just 2 wires to the track. Previously I built a small 4x8 oval test loop and had FOUR sets of feeders equally spaced aroudn it and still had slowdowns. But the was made with sectional track, not flex - although the 8x12 loop had nearly as many rail joints with the turnouts in there.

                                                   --Randy

 

 

 

[fkrall]

rrinker

 That's one I NEVER understood - the three wires sizes. If you stay less than 12 total inches the loss in a piece of #22 is neglible. Plus you're putting feeders to every section of rail anyway. This is all I ever did and never had a problem,and while I don;t mind soldering, doing the extra to splice in a piece of #18 seems utterly pointless.  [snip]
                                                   --Randy

 

You're probably referring to my post, Randy, and I'll bow to your expertise.  I probably was overreacting to concerns I'd read about resistance with #22, which I'm now learning is not so much a concern.  But since I'm nearly finished dropping the feeders--at this point it's academic!

It did give me practice soldering and splicing, however. I'm glad for that and so don't mind the time I spent. I'm now not at all apprehensive about installing and wiring my Peco and Tortoise switch machines.

Rick Krall
 

[MySpace for Nerds!]

In HO I use 12 AWG stranded for the bus so the Scotch "suitecase" connectors can work withy my 18 AWG feeder wire. I use solid 18 AWG because it allows you to bend them into position under the rail (or some people place them on the side of the outer rail) and in the under rail placement you can flatten the solid copper wire for a better solder connection. An American Beauty resistance soldering tweezer and two (each side of soldering area) Micro Mark heat sink wood handled tweezers for the under rail feeder wire connection. Hope this makes sense! P.S. N scale can use much smaller wire and the larger scales might best utilize larger wire. The length of DCC "block" runs matters as well.

[tstage]

Here's my scenario:

14ga solid track bus <--> IDC (or suitcase connector) <--> 18ga stranded --> Terminal strip --> 20ga stranded track feeders --> Track

It's worked well so far for me.  The terminal strips making troubleshooting much easier.

Tom

[MySpace for Nerds!]

Sounds good to me. However, why have THREE steps when two seems just fine? I'm curious. And lazy.

[MySpace for Nerds!]

Oh! The most important part I just remembered: use pre-tinned feeder wire! makes everything faster and easier. Regardless what AWG wire size you want to use. (This is what happens when you're still art work!) Best.

[Hamltnblue]

The wire size will never be a problem if you're only running one or two engines. If you wind up with a large layout or start running multiple sound loco's, smaller gauge feeders will start showing their weakness.

[loathar]

rrinker

 That's one I NEVER understood - the three wires sizes. If you stay less than 12 total inches the loss in a piece of #22 is neglible. Plus you're putting feeders to every section of rail anyway. This is all I ever did and never had a problem,and while I don;t mind soldering, doing the extra to splice in a piece of #18 seems utterly pointless.

 

 

 

Yeah, I shook my head when I saw that article too. I would think you'd loose more efficiency through all the extra joints.
Anybody else get tired of waiting on their pencil iron to heat up the buss connections and go out and buy a Weller 100 watt gun?

[rrinker]

 haha the little pencil iron I used for decoders (15 whole watts) I could probably lay on #12 bus wire all day and it still wouldn;t melt the solder. This is where the 100 watt or bigger gun is used.

                                                 --Randy