Can anyone explain in very simple terms how bus bars are incorporated with terminal strips?? I am new to model railroading and want to have a neat, no fuss wiring system. I am running HO on a layout that is 8 x 11 L-shaped. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Speaking for myself, it is not clear what you are asking. I'm pretty sure you don't mean buss bar. In the electrical word a buss bar is a pretty thick piece of copper that is used to make a connection between two pieces of equipment. Did you mean the electrical two-wire buss that goes from a DCC command station around the layout?
Or if you are talking terminal strips, did you mean the jumper wires that go from screw terminal to screw terminal on the terminal strip to get them all at the same polarity (or phase in DCC) with the single lead wire that comes from each buss wire?
Bailey07-GTW Can anyone explain in very simple terms how bus bars are incorporated with terminal strips?? I am new to model railroading and want to have a neat, no fuss wiring system. I am running HO on a layout that is 8 x 11 L-shaped. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
If you mean something like this:
You have a terminal strip, in this case with 2 rows of 8 terminals. Each screw in one row is conencted to the screw above it in the next row, not not to any other screw in the strip. In normal use, you connect the input to one screw adn the output to the other screw - conectign the wires together withotu sodlering them or crimping connectors on. With an 8-position strip, you can have up to 8 connections.
Now, if you want to bring in a single wire and split it off to others - using a termianl strip you'd have to make jumper wires to bridge one screw to the one next to it, and that can get messy. Instead, you connect what is in the picture to all 8 screws on 1 side, adn now all screws on ther terminal strip are connected together. Joining 3 wires usually isn;t a problem, you can easily solder a tap to a through wire, or use a solderless 'suitcase' connector. But connecting 8 together... that's where the terminal strip with the bus bar comes in handy.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
A bus bar is a metal bar with a bunch of screws to attach wires. There's no insulation so all the screws and the bar itself are connected together. Bus bars came in a variety of sizes (number of screw connections)
My favorite source for bus bars is old electric service panels but they can be purchased at the local home store in the electric department.
Martin Myers
mfm37A bus bar is a metal bar with a bunch of screws to attach wires.
No, a bus bar is a long narrow polished wooden platform with stools along its length where one may obtain a beverage, generally located on the upper level of a double-decker bus.
A buss bar is a metal bar with a bunch of screws to attach wires :)!
Regards
(a little)
Why does most everyone seem to feel that the correct spelling for "bus" in electrical applications (DCC/electrical bus, busbar, etc) is "buss"?
(back to topic)
Randy -- where'd you get that bar from? I like the looks of it, as the only terminal strips I've seen locally are the plastic insulating ones. Less short loops of wire can only be a good thing.
Then again, I haven't checked at my local less-than-helpful big box store's electrical section as was pointed out by martin...
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
NeO6874 Why does most everyone seem to feel that the correct spelling for "bus" in electrical applications (DCC/electrical bus, busbar, etc) is "buss"?
Oh, probably because that's the way I've been used to seeing it spelled. While incorrect, if you throw "buss" into GOOGLE you'll see it come up in many applications. Must be like "ain't", which ain't a word but is used by many anyway.
Radio Shack
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Terminal strips are plastic bars with a double row of flat head screws under which one inserts electrical wires. Good ones have plastic barriers between the screw heads to prevent shorts. A bus bar is a solid metal bar to which a large number of wires are connected. The purpose of a bus bar is to distribute electricity to lots of wires. A terminal strip is really intended to allow one to disconnect wires for maintenance without cutting them.
Terminal strips are often used as bus bars by the simply expdient of placing two or more wires under the same screw head. For example consider lighting two or three structures in the same place. Normal practice would place a terminal strip near the houses and connect each house to the lighting bus at the terminal strip. This way each house could be disconnected and removed from the layout for work.
Used this way, there is a limit to the number of wires that can be jammed under a single screw head. Usually things get out of hand after three wires. So, terminal strips often come with metal straps that bond 2 or more screw heads together. The pattern of this strapping varies from one terminal strip to another.
Terminal strips can be purchased new, but they are much cheaper purchased as surplus from dealers like All Electronics.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
NeO6874 (a little) Why does most everyone seem to feel that the correct spelling for "bus" in electrical applications (DCC/electrical bus, busbar, etc) is "buss"? (back to topic) Randy -- where'd you get that bar from? I like the looks of it, as the only terminal strips I've seen locally are the plastic insulating ones. Less short loops of wire can only be a good thing. Then again, I haven't checked at my local less-than-helpful big box store's electrical section as was pointed out by martin...
I just googled until I got a good picture - but I've bought them at Radio Shack before. The picture on Radio Shack's site wasn't very good, it showed only the top part without the fingers that slide under the screws so it was pretty pointless to post that. However the probably no longer have them in-store. I did buy the double row of screw terminals with a little ridge between each pair type of terminal strips at Home Depot, and they probably have the bus bar piece as well. Silly me, I made jumpers because I kept Rail A and Rail B termiansl next to one another rather than using one strip for Rail A and oen for Rail B, which makes a heck of a lot more sense. So I had tons of shorty jumpers connecting it all together. Doh!
maxmanmfm37A bus bar is a metal bar with a bunch of screws to attach wires. No, a bus bar is a long narrow polished wooden platform with stools along its length where one may obtain a beverage, generally located on the upper level of a double-decker bus. A buss bar is a metal bar with a bunch of screws to attach wires :)! Regards
Sorry, but bus is the proper spelling. Think about it. A bus lets lots of people ride at the same time. Similar to how a bus bar lets multiple wires get to "ride" together
The NEC, Cutler-Hammer, Square D, etc. spell it bus. I'll trust their spelling over Wiki or other sources that cam be edited by anyone with an opinion.
I'm not sure exactly what a buss is but am familiar with bars :-)
maxman NeO6874 Why does most everyone seem to feel that the correct spelling for "bus" in electrical applications (DCC/electrical bus, busbar, etc) is "buss"? Oh, probably because that's the way I've been used to seeing it spelled. While incorrect, if you throw "buss" into GOOGLE you'll see it come up in many applications. Must be like "ain't", which ain't a word but is used by many anyway.
IMHO, the most probable source of Buss(R) is the Buss Manufacturing Company, which manufactures electrical service boxes and other power distribution hardware - some of which had integral bus bars.
I have also seen the two words Bus Bar as a single word - Busbar.
Back to terminal strips and blocks and such. I make my own, from styrene sheet, #8 machine screws, nuts and washers. (I have also used plywood, and even countersunk pine boards.) If I want one row of terminals to be a bus bar, I connect them across the back (screwhead) side of the styrene by substituting a drilled length of copper sheet material for the washers of that row.
My home-brew terminal blocks can be made with exactly as many terminals as I need, mounting wires several (up to 5) on a 'stud' with washers between. The best part? You can't beat the price!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Chuck,
Are your terminal strips single-row then? or do you make them double row, and use a jumper/thin piece of sheet metal like commercial ones?
I understand your concept of making the bus bar with the copper sheet, but I can't seem to figure out how a "basic" terminal strip of your design would look...
I suspect his homemade ones look similar to this, without all the fancy palstic work
With long enough screws and enough washers you can connect multiple wires to each screw. Drill holes in a piece of sheet coper so it lines up with all the screws and now all the screws are electrically connected.
rrinker I suspect his homemade ones look similar to this, without all the fancy palstic work With long enough screws and enough washers you can connect multiple wires to each screw. Drill holes in a piece of sheet coper so it lines up with all the screws and now all the screws are electrically connected. --Randy
Sorry, no Kewpie doll!
My homemade terminal blocks consist of rows of #8 screws, anchored to a substrate with nuts and used as studs - as many rows, and as many studs per row as needed for the particular location. (The one that's integral with the control panel I'm supposed to be working on has nine rows of ten studs each.) Studs that have to be bus-connected are in the same row. Each stud will accept up to 4 wires separated by washers, all anchored with a single nut. Each stud (except those with a bus connector) is electrically isolated from all others (except through the circuits of which they are a part.)
90 studs is the most I've had to use - so far. Each block is set up to handle as many terminals as necessary - 20 or more not being unusual. I install them (and all connecting wiring) along the aisleway edges just inside the (removeable) fascia. All of my wiring runs terminal to terminal, with the only solder joints to devices inside panels and to, "End users," (rail sections, switch machine coils or contacts, light sockets or whatever) on the layout proper.
If this seems like an unusually large number of terminals, be aware that I use analog DC, modified MZL system, which costs complexity during construction but pays off with very user-friendly operation.
Something more like this perhaps:
You can see the bare copper bus wire running left to right across the strip. And of course, everything is neatly labeled.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
Sounds the same as the commercial one, except that instead of the screw head sticking up it's the threaded end, and you then hodl the wires on with a nut. Every screw in the one I posted is isolated from the other, unless you apply one of those bus bar strips.
I have an old control panel from the layout my Dad used to set up in the family room that's exactly like that. The wires fromt he toggles are under the bolt head on the 'inside' of the back of the panel, which is plexiglas. The threaded end sticks through and is secured by a nut, then the wires out to the layout, 4 or more per terminal, went over the stud with washers and a second nut screwed on secured them.
Effective and inexpensive - although the commercial ones really aren't terribly expensive if you buy them from the right kinds of places.