transformer and wire size rules of thumb

[Anonymous]

help, i am realy getting confused. i had a standing layout --44''x60''-- all was well, THEN,my ambition grew, my new lay out will be a p shape. the old layout and now the addition of a 4x8 sheet of plywood.i was running all factory equiptment. let me explain, bachman ho,bachman n guage,lionell o27,everything ran great untill i added 2 pieces of track to the n guage,then at the same time i added four piaces of track to the ho. thats when everthing went south.poor running sluggish movement,no sparks ,checked all conections,cleaned all connections,still no good.  went to a show in kinda local area and was told the tranformers were to blame.then went to 4 differnt hobby stores and was told both wireing and transformers were bad. one gentleman at a hobby store took the time to talk to me about his layout that helped in the least .i guess what i am asking is this ... ARE THERE ANY GOOD RULES OF THUMB AS TO WHAT WIERING GUAGE SHOULD BE USED AND WHAT TRANSFOMER SIZE TO USE. ANY AND ALL HELP WILL BE GREATLY WELCOMED.  

[trainboyH16-44]

No simple answer to that, I'm afraid. Difference gauges of wire for different parts of your layout. I'm not a good electrician however, so I'll refer you to the model railway portion of these forums.

http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/88/ShowForum.aspx 

[Anonymous]

I'll also reccomend the Model Railroader fourum. This one's for......actually, I don't really know what this is for!

[trainboyH16-44]

It's mostly where us youngins hang out