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All Power Districts are Shorting Out/Pulsing Even With Track Gaps

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  • Member since
    May 2008
  • 4,612 posts
Posted by Hamltnblue on Friday, April 29, 2011 3:38 PM

Looks like his Bus.

Springfield PA

  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: Seattle Area
  • 1,794 posts
Posted by Capt. Grimek on Friday, April 29, 2011 4:02 PM

Hi, yes, they're  the mainline and classification or division yard's busses.

I followed the theory/practice of twisting the wires to (hopefully) eliminate RF interference.

We live in a late 1920s cottage with a lot of original wiring and my bass guitar amplifier often will pick up radio stations and similar behaviors have infrequently occurred with other things (can't remember what now.  When I had a recording studio where the train room is now I had to be especially mindful of that.

Although with recent electronics (last decade or so) this has been less of a problem. I also use quality UPS, surge protectors but wanted to be sure with the twisted bus wires as it was so simple to do with an electric drill and my wiring mentor/buddy Q. pullin' the trigger.

 

Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Eastern Shore Virginia
  • 3,290 posts
Posted by gandydancer19 on Friday, April 29, 2011 5:14 PM

Hi, yes, they're  the mainline and classification or division yard's busses.

OK, I thought that was the case, but I wanted to make sure. 

I have a couple of comments, not meant to be derogatory or faulting your wiring in any way, but meant to be used as a learning experience for later use.  Since things are currently working, I don't think you need to change anything at this point.

1.  Twisting is good.  However, it doesn't need to be as tight as you did it to be effective.  You have twice or three times as much as you need, but it's not going to hurt anything.

2.  Your buss wires look to be smaller than 14 gauge.  I think I can tell by how tight the twist is.  The larger wire can't be twisted as tight, even if it is stranded.

I know you really can't tell wire size from photos, but I would guess that your bus is 18 gauge. 

- So, on your layout, what is the longest bus wire distance from your circuit breakers?
- And, what is your actual bus wire size?


Elmer.

The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.

(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.

  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: Seattle Area
  • 1,794 posts
Posted by Capt. Grimek on Sunday, May 1, 2011 3:05 PM

Hi Elmer. Sorry for the late response. The busses are all 14 gauge. We twisted the wires closely together just to keep them out of the way when working under the benches. Seeing as we chose to go the suitcase connector route they weren't too tight to manage as they would have been if we'd soldered them. 

I really appreciated all of your comments, suggestions, etc. Now that our wiring is 99.9% complete I can start cleaning up the room and maybe post something else. My friend "q." is going to post a link to a pic of my classification/division yard in the near future.

More test running over the next couple of days. I also need to install yard track off toggles or rotary switch in the near future. 

Have a great remainder of your weekend,

Jim

Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.

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