New at wiring

[kmrollo]

Hello, im new here, i have a Kato n scale layout about 28 feet, it was running on just the Kato power pack, i installed 4 unijoiners and see absolutely no difference, confused...and they are hooked up right

[gmpullman]

Hi, and...

I'm not exactly sure by your description that you installed "unijoiners" but I believe you may be talking about the pre-wired "Terminal" unijoiners?

You said you see no difference? I'm not sure what you mean. It WAS running OK with only one wire to each rail then you added the four pre-wired unijoiners and now the engine doesn't run?

Of course, you have to keep continuity so the blue wire feeds the same rail all the way around, and the same with the white wire.

Maybe disconnect all four unijoiners and re-connect them ONE-AT-A-TIME and see if that clears things up?

 

I stumbled across this VID... does that help?

 

Good Luck,

Ed

[kmrollo]

Thanks Ed, i was just doing what i thought i was supposed to, the train was running fine without the unijoiners , i just thought since it was 28 feet long to add them i would see a bit of a difference.

[delray1967]

I'm not into N scale, but with one set of feeders, the train probably slowed down slightly at the far end of the layout (farthest from the first feeder). With 4 feeders (hopefully spaced equally around the layout) the speed will be more consistent because the electricity won't encounter as many joints to get to the far end of the layout. Every joint (not as much so for soldered joints) will cut a down a bit of electricity due to resistance encountered at the joints. A solid piece of wire has less resistance than one of equal length with 50 joints. Also, the longer the run, the thicker the wire needs to be. That thin wire might have more resistance over a long run than one that is thicker (I'm talking about the size of the wires inside...not just the outer diameter of the insulation; I've seen small wires with really think insulation).

Also, having 4 feeders makes the layout more reliable. If you only have one set of feeders and one of those goes bad (or gets dirty) then you'll notice problems; with 4 sets of feeders, if one goes bad then there are three more for the circuit to still work. Read up on basic wiring to learn how electricity flows and you'll be a wiring master in no time...there's no substitute for good education! :) 

[kmrollo]

Thank you Delray