12 Gauge Wire ?

[MPCAnthony]

I have  a lot of 12 gauge solid wire left over from adding 20 Amp service to my basement.

Can I use this to wire my PW ZW to 0-31 tubular track; accessories and switches?  Can I also use it to rewire 022 switches and RCS track?

I laid out a lot $$ for this wire but over bought so I thought I can put it to good use.

Thanks in advance everyone.

[lionelsoni]

Yes to all of that.

Solid wire may be a little difficult to work with; but electrically it's just fine.  For the track, it will make excellent feeders.  You may want to consider a little trick that I use.  I solder short pigtails to the track, going straight down through the table, then join them to the bus underneath with wire nuts.  This way, I can easily remove the track later for replacement or repair.  You can also safely use somewhat smaller and easier to handle wire for these taps, since they are so short.

[balidas]

I second the above post.

[MPCAnthony]

lionelsoni

Yes to all of that.

Solid wire may be a little difficult to work with; but electrically it's just fine.  For the track, it will make excellent feeders.  You may want to consider a little trick that I use.  I solder short pigtails to the track, going straight down through the table, then join them to the bus underneath with wire nuts.  This way, I can easily remove the track later for replacement or repair.  You can also safely use somewhat smaller and easier to handle wire for these taps, since they are so short.

Great.  Thanks for the tip also which I have a quick question on. 

To join the pigtails to the bus do I just solder a lead from different areas of the layout to the bus?  That's what I was envisioning prior to your pigtail tip; but now I guess I can do both for better conductivity.

Thanks again.

[lionelsoni]

I would run the 12 AWG bus to every place on the layout where feel that you need a track feeder.  I would solder a pigtail to each rail at that node and stick it through the table.  I would fasten the pigtails to the bus wires with wire nuts, generally with 3 wires in the nut, that is, the pigtail, the wire to that node, and the wire, if any, going on to the next node.  You could solder the pigtail directly to the uncut bus, but it would be more of a hassle to connect or disconnect it.  The only disadvantage of the wire-nut connection is that you need a few inches more of the bus wire at each node.  So it would be a good idea to put in a service loop of extra wire every so often to allow for future taps.

[lionelnut]

I used this type of wire but it was 14 awg.  Since there are 3 wires white, black and ground, and if you were running 2 separate loops to one post war zw could you use black for one loop, white for the second loop and ground for common.  I did not use the ground wire because it is not insulated but was wondering in the future if I could put it to use?

Thanks again.

Harold

[lionelsoni]

I wouldn't hesitate to use it, especially if it's still inside the cable sheath.  Consider that you already have your common exposed all over the layout--the rails of the track themselves.

[phillyreading]

There is no problem using 12 gauge wire except at the switch or RCS track hook-up or terminal screws, I would drop to 16 gauge flexible wire about 6 or 7 inches before the terminal screws for easier hook-up, as 12 gauge wire is not that flexible.

Also the ground wire, inside NM cable the ground wire is wrapped in paper and is insulated from the other wires inside the cable, will work just as well for the common wire with the post war ZW transformer.

Lee F.