Telephone line uses ?

[David Woodard]

I have been trying to not post this, but my degenerate side will not permit it...  I would (and note that I am lazy as crap) I would use it to mount a speaker phone to my control panel so I would not have to put any hands or effort into taking important calls while playing choo choo in my train room.  just an idea...  LOL

[gandydancer19]

I use it for Tortoise switch machine wiring, for panel LED wiring, CSD detector wiring, IR detector wiring, and signal wiring.

[jecorbett]

I use telephone wire for all my switch machines. It's the ideal size wire and is color coded. I need just 3 of the 4 wires but it is easy to snip off the unused one. For accessories requiring 2 wires, I use stereo hook up wire.

[BlueHillsCPR]

As to what has been said so far...

Category 3, category 5, 4-cond, 6-cond, 20, cond, it's all good for something!  I salvage comm cables from demo jobs I have done and have thousands of feet.  More than I'll ever use myself.  Also collected lots of solid 12 gauge wire from Demo.  I think I have my wiring needs covered for some time.

[mobilman44]

Hi!

Over the years I've collected a lot of phone wire, particularly the 4 wire color coded solid core used to wire older style telephones.  This stuff is great Atlas and other switch machines, and other low voltage applications. 

ENJOY,

Mobilman44

[MisterBeasley]

When I was looking around for appropriate wire for my turnouts, I found that 4-conductor phone wire from Home Depot was a better buy than 3-conductor cable from on-line electronics places.  It works great, and I can buy it when I need it without shipping charges or delays.

I also use it for the control bus (not the track bus) of my DCC system.

[trainfever]

 i am another who has used telephone wire to operate points - double coil type, with no problems. in fact thats all i use apart from track feed supply

[wm3798]

I use them for quick disconnects on my lift bridge.  The larger diameter Cat5 cable carries the control bus for the MRC PA system, and the regular phone line carries a track feeder to the bridge, and two wires to run a few structure lights on the adjacent shelf.  Never had a problem with this set up.  For reference, the power is fed to the bridge from both directions.

Lee 

[dinwitty]

I usually hardwire, yyou wont see tely connectors there. Good for DCC throttle controlling or anything needing an external quick disconnect, maybe good on modules for signal data, hey, maybe they would be good for telephone use on modules..youthink?  -smirk-

[GMTRacing]

In fact, I was given a paired commercial bundle of 40 pairs 50' long and used it quite successfully on my last layout to run the twin coil switch machines (didn't have any of the RIX high amperage switches at that time so don't know if they'd work or not.) J.R. 

[tomikawaTT]

  Was about to throw some telephone cables away (the ones that go from the wall to the phone) & since my mind usually drifts to the " how can I use this thing on my RR layout?"      I was wondering if anyone found a use for these on thier layout. I realize they are very thin & probably couldn't carry 1 amp, plus they are stiff for such a small diameter.    Any ideas?   thanks, Jerry

While I wouldn't want to use them for track power or twin-coil switch machines, they are quite cabable of carrying power to Tortoise machines and LED-head signals.  Just match the small size wire to low-power applications.

If you've priced wire lately, you realize that you have a valuable resource in hand.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[jerryl]

  Was about to throw some telephone cables away (the ones that go from the wall to the phone) & since my mind usually drifts to the " how can I use this thing on my RR layout?"      I was wondering if anyone found a use for these on thier layout. I realize they are very thin & probably couldn't carry 1 amp, plus they are stiff for such a small diameter.    Any ideas?   thanks, Jerry