I am going to need some advice

[recon78]

Since my son is fascinated with the Polar Express; for his birthday I managed to suspend a track above his room and put together an HO version of the engine and passenger cars. He really seems to like trains so I figured to use a DCC system in case he would like to expand later and I purchased an NCE PowerCab. All together is about 40' of track and it came out a lot better than I thought it would, I used EZ track from Bachman and this is where I get confused. The manual from NCE assumes that I know too much about wiring because when I look at the connectors from the power panel and the terminals from the EZ track it does not look like it will work. After reading a few hints here and there I now ask: Do I need to run 14 ga wire along the track and tie into it every 5 feet? Do I use the connectors from the EZ Track at all? Does the wiring from the power panel in the Powercab go to the track at all? I wish that there was a simple set of instructions on how to set up a basic DCC system, wood and tile I know about but electricity was always my weakness, I guess I have to start sometime. Any help will be appreciated. Henry

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 The EZ-Track connector wires come in several types, all with the EZ-Track connector at one end. One type has the phono type plug on one end, another has spade type connectors that are made to slide under screw connectors and still another has just bare wire ends. Can you use these to connect to the track with your DCC system? Absolutely! Do you need to run heavy 14 gauge wires along your track to run feeders from? No. You just need a type wire that's a better conductor that nickle-silver. I used all nickle silver EZ-Track on my layout and I have over 130' feet of track. Unless you're going to be running a dozen or so sound engines all at once you should be able to run a good quality track wire under the EZ-Track sections and have it plug into a terminal section every 10 to 20 feet. For electrical purposes you can solder the rail joiners to insure that corrosion won't break the contact where the rails meet.

[recon78]

Thank You Jeffrey, We will be running 2 engines to start, based on your answer I can run a wire from my power panel to the far end of the track into a terminal and then maybe half-way back run a feeder into another terminal?, good tip on the rail joiners. Thanks again, Henry