I hope someone can help me with some info. I know about the bus wires and allbut what about the feeder wires? If I solder a feeder wire every three feet in order to have each 3 foot section electrified, then would I have to suitcase each wire to the bus, or is there someway to combine some of these feeder wires together or pigtail them and then run oly one to the bus line to be suitcased but have all the feeders that were pigtailed electrified. Any info would be appreciated. I hate to have a couple hundred suitcases on my bus.. Thanks again.
Krondor,
to the Forums! You've come to the right place with your question....I'm not an expert at wiring but I can tell you how I wired my DCC feeders. I'm sure other readers will soon add to the information.
When I wired my layout, I used circuit breakers to protect and power a section of the layout. I ran my main bus to a terminal strip and jumpered a feed to the circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, I ran the bus that is actually providing power to the rails. I used terminal strips on that bus as well, and ran several feeders to the terminal strip to consolidate them.
There are many methods to attach feeders to the bus: terminal strips, suitcase connectors, wirenuts, Scotchlock connectors, and I'm sure there are several other fasteners. You could even solder the feeders to the bus. I hope this helped.
Don Z.
Research; it's not just for geeks.
Don Z Krondor, to the Forums! You've come to the right place with your question....I'm not an expert at wiring but I can tell you how I wired my DCC feeders. I'm sure other readers will soon add to the information. When I wired my layout, I used circuit breakers to protect and power a section of the layout. I ran my main bus to a terminal strip and jumpered a feed to the circuit breaker. From the circuit breaker, I ran the bus that is actually providing power to the rails. I used terminal strips on that bus as well, and ran several feeders to the terminal strip to consolidate them. There are many methods to attach feeders to the bus: terminal strips, suitcase connectors, wirenuts, Scotchlock connectors, and I'm sure there are several other fasteners. You could even solder the feeders to the bus. I hope this helped. Don Z.
I used the same approach and do not have any suitcase connectors.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Same here but I soldered the taps to my main bus and saved some $$ on IDC's.
Martin Myers
I solder all mine. If you plan to add detection and signalling in the future and know where the occupency blocks will be located, you can run the feeders for what will become each block to a terminal strip and then one set of wires from there to the main bus. If you have feeders every 3-6 feeet, a given detection block will end up having more than oen set of feeders. This 'jumper' from the terminal strip to the main bus would eb where you hook in the detector when you add that.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks for the welcome and I appreciate the replies. I will try to use them. Thanks again