From what I can gather using CAT 5 Wire is ok for wiring a few UP 5s for my layout. I have enough of it vs buying telephone wire. Thanks Much
Yes and no. You really need to be careful what you pair up, plus there are 2 extra wires that will not fit in the 6p6c plugs to crimp. Not to mention - is the cat5 you haev solid or strnaded? The crimp on conenctors ARE different for the two wire types!
Do yourself a favor - use flat 6 conductor wire as specified and don;t try to jury-rig just to save a couple of dollars. Save the Cat5 for runnign ethernet conenctions in your house.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
You can make adaptors to go from the 8 wire cat5 cable to the 6 wire telephone cable, but why bother. The 6 wire cable is cheap, $4 for 50 feet and the modular plugs are around $3 for 10 and a good crimper is around $15. But if you already have enough of the Cat 5 material and are comfortable doing it, then go ahead and let the members here know how you did it and how it works out for you.
The wire, itself, is fine but I can picture it being more trouble than it is worth attaching 6 conductor connectors to 8 conductor cable and keeping the wire pattern straight. It's not like flat 6 conductor telephone wire is expensive.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
ISTR reading that CAT5 wasn't recommended for LocoNet wiring vs 6-conductor flat phone cable because of the difference in capacitance, but I can't locate the reference right now.
In any event, as others have mentioned, the 6-conductor phone cable is relatively inexpensive so why not do it right? I have lots of CAT5 laying around, too, but that isn't going to make me cut corners.
I use cat5 solid on my N scale layout with no problems
Well I went ahead and did both, had some phone wire for 2 UP 5s and did the rest with my CAT 5 wire. Just cut the browns out and made my own key from the 6 solid strand wires left, Yes it took an extra 3 min per connection, but so far I cannot tell any difference so far in performance.