Speaker wire

[mcouvillion]

Gordon,

Definitely keep and use the 20 AWG speaker wire. Great for track feeders, power for lights in buildings, and all other kinds of things. I hope one wire is marked different from the other, such as with a white stripe, a ridge on the insulation, or the wire material itself is slightly different color so that you don't accidentally cross-connect when using it.

Mark C.

[rrinker]

#20 wire is GREAT for feeders, connecting to the heavier main bus. Over short distances, the loss is neglible, and #20 wire is a LOT easier to solder to the track than #14. I bought a spool of #20 solid wire at Home Depot and am using that for my track feeders, connecting to the #12 main power bus. Run length of the #20 is a foot or less. Digging up some tables somewhere, you will find that the voltage drop at a 2 amp load through 1 foot of #20 wire is on the order of .1 volt or less, not even noticeable and that assumes that you indeed have equipment drawing 2 amps in that section fed by only 1 set of #20 feeders. I have feeders every 3 feet or less, so the likelyhood of actually having 2 amps fed through 1 feeder set is just about nil.
But don't go thinking that you can run a 30 foot run of #20 wire and power half your railroad. You will be GREATLY disappointed.
#20 wire is also good for stall motor switch machines like Tortoise and Switchmaster. You should use heavier wire for twin-coil solenoid type switch motors.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

If it's a short pigtail, shouldn't hurt at all. You can always double it up--just make sure wires approx. same length.

[CP5415]

I have 5 bundles of speaker wire that I got with a set of speakers for my surround sound.
I didn't use it as it's 20 gauge wire & the bundles wern't long enough to go where I needed it to go..

Has anyone here ever used speaker wire off the bus wire to the track?

I'm using 14 guage wire for my bus & I don't want to waste this 20 guage wire so I was wanting using it on my layout.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Gordon