wiring for a layout

[MR Arcus]

can a person use telephone wire on your layout for your wireing is it heavy enuff??

 

 

 

 

[richhotrain]

MR Arcus,

Telephone wire works fine for feeders from the rails to the bus wires, but I personally prefer stranded wire as opposed to solid wire for the feeders, just easier to work with and more flexible.

The bus wires, however, should be a lot heavier gauge, preferably 14 gauge, to handle the load.

Rich

[MisterBeasley]

Telephone wire is very light-gauge, so I wouldn't use it for track power.

On the other hand, it's great for powering turnouts.  I drive all my remote switch machines with phone wire - Atlas, Peco and Tortoise.  I also use it for the control bus on my Lenz DCC system.

[mobilman44]

Hi!

There are all kinds of telephone wire out there.

The "old style" 4 wire (green/red/black/yellow) was very common and I use it for wiring turnouts (only 3 of the 4 wires is used).  I believe it is 24 awg, at least that's the setting on my wire strippers that works.

While I suppose you CAN use it to power tracks, my feeling is its really too small - I prefer 20 or 22.  But, if it works for you, that is fine!

[Phoebe Vet]

I used it on the first 4x8 section that I built.  It has not melted or caught fire yet , but the segment has lots of individual feeders all running back to the distribution point and it never has more than one train on it at a time.

The rest of the layout, built when I was wiser, has 18 Ga. wire for power feed and 22 Ga. wire for accessories like lights and switches,

[rrinker]

 In general, telephone wire is too thin for the main power lines to the track. For short feeders from the track to a heavier wire for the long run, it's great. For low power items like signals, it's great.

 Naturally there are no absolutes. If your layout is a 2x4 foot Z scale layout, telephone wire is probably just fine - short runs and very low current draw mean there will not be much voltage drop and the trains will work just fine. On the other hand, a 20x50 foot O scale layout will absolutely require something heavier - telephone wire probably isn't even suitable as short feeder wires for a large O scale pike.

                                   --Randy

 

[emman]

Like everything else, yes, but it depends...

I built my layout for DC blocks for two cabs without a common rail. So each block is isolated from the adjacent block (insulated rail joiners) and individually powered from a main control panel. Wire runs are anywhere from a foot to 14 feet. I use the four color (red, black, green, yellow) telephone cable. For track power, I use two of the wires and for turnout activation; I use three of the wires. I do solder feeders to the track for each block and drop them under the table for connection to their dedicated power runs.

I recently started migrating to DCC, but can run either way (DC or DCC) until the entire fleet is converted. I wired in a cutover switch between the power packs and the command station before the control panel. Of course, this did not affect the turnout controls; they're powered by constant AC off one of the DC power packs. Using DCC, I've done the quarter test everywhere and to double check, took voltage readings as well. This arrangement passed the quarter test and the voltage readings were consistent throughout. I've also held the feed wires through the insulation and didn't feel any heat increase.

My two DCC locos run simultaneously without stalling, stopping, or slowing, so from all of this, I'm concluding, the wiring scheme works. On the flip side, based on a lot of other postings, if you run a two wire layout bus to power the tracks, 22 gauge phone wire would not be advisable.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I used 3 pair (6 wires) telephone cable for years and never had a problem with it even on DCC. I've only just finally ripped it all out after 10+ years and am replacing it with 16 gauge buss wires as I'm rebuilding the layout. The feeders however are still done with phone wire.