What guage wire should I buy to install block signals, traffic lights, and street lights? The interior diameter of the brass tubes for the block signals is so small, as is the wire that you have to solder to the resistors and LEDs. So, I'm guessing I need to get some very fine wire to hook up these electrical accesories. Do I need to solder these connections or can "super glue" work? Is a terminal block also a good investment to hook up all of these items? Thanks for your advice! If there is a video demo somewhere on You Tube, or what have you, to show you how to hook up these very delicate and thin wire items, I would also appreciate the referral. I'm a newbie.
Mark
SUper glue does not conduct electricity, so you need to solder. For the wires in the tubes, it will depend. SOmething light a street light that has only 2 wires, you can usually fit something small like 30-32 gauge wire wrap wire. It's small and flexible. For a signal with 3 lights, that's 4 wires, a common plus a power to each LED. If your signals are brass, you can use the tube as the common and solder a wire to the bottom, that means only 3 wires to fit int he tube.
A terminal strip of some sort is highly recommended, the fine wires are delicate and don;t stand up to repeated handling You want to terminate them once, and not have to fiddle with soldering ont he wires to your controls. Another option if to make the street lights and signals plug in. For the base you use a small plug, glues on to the bottom. That way allt he fine wiring is fully enclosed, and if you need to work on an area of the layotu you cna simply unpluf the lights and signals in that area and put them aside for safekeeping so you don't catch them with your elbow or a loose sleeve and damage anything.
Another kind of wire commonly used for this sort of thing is enameled magnet wire. It's usualyl a reddish gold color, and very fine. It's the same sort of wire used for winding motors. It's insulated with a thin coat of clear enamel. The old way to 'strip' it is to use sandpaper, gript he end of the wire in folded snadpaper and pull it. One pass usually works - you can tell because it will be copper color like ordinary wire when the enamel is stripped off. It also usually burns off quickly if you just heat it with a soldering iron.
It's all very delicate, you just have to work slowly and take your time. Very frustrating to be hookign up the last wire and accidently rip out one of the ones you already did. The only way around this is to buy signals and streetlights with the lights already installed, then all you have to worry about are the fine wires at the bottom until you get them connected to a terminal strip. This tends to be more expensive than buying the basics or even just buying brass tubing and making your own.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Those fine wires are difficult to solder. LION strips about 1/8" on the lamp side and tins it. Then him uses something like solid telephone or CAT-5 wire to connect it to. Make a little itty bitty loop in the solid wire, tin it, and then poke one through the other and apply a dab of heat to finish it.
You will of course use the longer more durable wire for all your other connections or manipulations with the circuit.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Thank you both for your replies. Much apprecaited. I have decided to get rid of my two Oregon signal "kits" that seem too delicate and complicated for someone like me and go very simple with the Model Power lighted block signals. For a new person like me who doesn't care about automatic signal switching (at least for now), these will do just fine. Is it ok to solder #22 gauge wire to the finer (#30??) wire that usally comes with these signals, as well as the tarffic signals and other electrical accesories? Also, do you folks usually buy or have a dedicated power pack for such accesories? I heard some folks go to Radio Shack or similar to buy a transformer.
Yes, you can solder heavier wire on to use to run fromt he controls tot he signal.
A dedicated power source is best, that leaves the train running power to the trains and turning lights on and off won;t have any effect on the train speed. If you only have a basic train set sort of pwoer pack for now, this is definitely the way to go. You can also find many power supplies of the sort you need, often 12V or so, but check witht he instructions for the signals as to what voltages they can use - if there's a range, say 12-14, use the lower, the bulbs will last longer, and they'll be plenty bright. Use lower even - if it says 14-16V, 12V will be PLENTY. Samr for structure lights, most small bulbs are much too bright at their rated voltage, it will look better on a slightly lower voltage plus the bulbs will last virtually forever if run below their rating. A good source of pwoer supplies is eBay - many are sold as 'repalcements' for various bits of computer equipment. These are great for model railroad purposes, there's usually a special connector on the end but you just cut that off. 12V is pretty common, $10 or so, cheaper than Radio Shack.