High All
A friend of mine was just here and he knows what I am doing brought over about 125 feet of red and black 22 gauge stranded wire for my feeder wire. Now I gotta get it all spooled up because it is the two of them just tossed in a box. But with them two wires if good to use would be a good money saver. 22 gauge isn't too small is it?
Thanks
Gidday, For DCC I use 22 gauge for the track feeders and 16 gauge for the bus wires.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
22 gauge stranded wire is fine for feeder wires.
Get it spooled up and get to work with the wiring.
Rich
Alton Junction
Hi!
As indicated, 22 gauge stranded wire will work as feeders. That being said, I much prefer working with solid wire for feeders, and find 20 gauge preferable.
If you do use the 22 gauge, may I suggest two things.............
First, make your feeders as short as possible - say 12 inches or less - and of course run them into a larger buss wire (14 gauge is good).
Second, put in a good quantity of feeders, perhaps every 3 feet of track, and a feeder for every siding, no matter how short. In my 57 years of model railroading, I have never heard someone regret they had too many feeders.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Damigg
You might want to take a look at Allan Gartner's page on track wiring. 22 gauge will work but as indicated above, each 3ft section of flex track should have a feeder plus feeders for turnouts.
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
Note that you will need wire to connect things beside track feeders. I use #22 for just about everything - and I'm running locos and MU units with ancient power hog open-frame motors, twin-coil switch machines (also power hogs,) structure lights, panel indicators, signals...
Shortly before I retired I scored a couple of hundred yards of #24 twisted pair communication wire. Since two #24 wires equal one #22 wire, I've run that twisted pair as a single connector between terminal strips. All of my other wiring is done with #22 solid wire, much of it salvaged from 50-pair telephone cables recovered from a dumpster in the 1970s. (Yes, in the 1970s telephone repair people would dumpsterize short - to them - lengths of multiconductor cable!) My only purchased wire? #12, used for busses.
Yes, Matilda, analog DC with common-rail wiring uses busses...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)