External Wiring Help Please

I had an extraction last Friday, 35mins of tugging and digging to remove the offending tooth. not an experience I would recommend in a hurry:cry::cry:
 
Alex, I used to use an NCE 10 amp system, and I use US gauge 10 wire as the main feeds in a "star" or "home run" configuration, i.e. every wire goes back to the power supply.

I do have some trains that do indeed draw 10 amps. My feeders are 30 to 40 feet apart, I use SS rail and SS Split Jaw clamps. This arrangement has been a good balance for me between number of feeders and gauge of wire.

Here in the US 10 gauge wire can be had in various configurations, but I buried conduit along the right of way, so I was able to use inexpensive household wiring, with a thin insulating jacket, as opposed to wire that was designed to be buried in the earth.

Even though SS is less conductive, and I use sectional track so I have a lot of joints in the rail, this has worked very well for about 10 years, and very few issues on bad joints. So, basically zero maintenance in 10 years, and for me this is success.

Regards, Greg
 
My layout has three distinct sections that were initially run as separate DC blocks (using a 13 amp Crest power supply with Aristo TE receivers) so that the sections could operate and be controlled independently using the TE transmitter.

I then began to DCC the layout, section by section, but still wanted to be able to run the separate DC sections for the DC locos still non-DCC-ed. So I used three heavy duty switches to enable the DCC/DC operation on the separate sections.

Initially I used thicker gauge speaker cable for the power delivery and then, after about 6 years of non-problematic DC power, I swapped it for 1.5mm 6 core caravan hook up cable for neatness and ease of connecting up the three switches for DCC/DC running.

I can have up to 7 locos working at once (3 or 4 loco headers on the main line, up to 2 loco headers on the 'local' and a single loco on the 'quarry' section). The locos are US outline and can be multi power bogie monsters or steamers.
My layout has a very heavy incline which both the 'Main' and the 'Local' lines have to navigate.
This can mean that up to 6 locos (on the two lines) can be pulling the max amps that they need to haul their trains up the gradient.
They also have sound cards, lighting and sometimes smoke.

My rail is mainly brass and joined with a mixture of plain LGB joiners, joiners with overclamps, hillman clamps and Aristo screwed joiners.

Never had a power supply problem and the cable has not come under stress.

EDIT..... I must add that there are a few of the 'plain joiner' joins that have failed over time and then receive an 'overclamp' or are replaced by a Hillman or other screwed clamp.
 
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Sounds good. I also forgot to mention that all my power feeds do feed insulated sections. Even though under DCC I could just leave everything together, having the "districts" separately insulated allows me to find problems quickly.

Later, it's easy to add more boosters, and also like beavercreek, it's easy to run some sections from DC.

Beavercreek, I've always maintained that a good design with quality parts will be easy to maintain, and clearly you have achieved this even with a mix of components.

In the US, there is a very vocal group of how hard it is to maintain track power and everyone should go to battery. I think these are people who did not use quality materials or did not pay attention to details when first assembling.

Good for you on your success, it's nice to not have to worry about the state of charge of a battery that has been sitting on a shelf for 6 months, or having to change batteries if you want to run all day.

Regards, Greg
 
Cheers Greg...
but I have edited the post to say that some of the few track sections with pain LGB joiners, begun to fail over the past 9 years so they are either replaced with a Hillman clamp or have an overclamp.
It is only my laziness that has caused me not to replace or overclamp all of the remaining LGB joiners....... maybe a job this Spring?
 
I read forums for years before I built my layout. I removed the stock joiners and went right to SJ rail clamps (Hillman never made SS clamps). One of the best decisions I have made, since the Aristo joiners are junk. The LGB are much better even without screws, better metal, better conformance to the rail, but nothing works as well as clamps.

If I had a lesser budget I might have gone to brass rail, and probably solder flexible jumpers between rails, soldering is easy for me. That would have been the most conductive and best power, but I live 1 mile from the ocean and brass rail oxidized overnight, and if left for 2 days it was really awful, so SS was the plan.

Regards, Greg
 
I must confess that best decision I made was to use joiners as opposed to fishplates. Most of mine are Train-Li/Massoth joiners with some split jaw, and a decreasing number of AMS old type (which are not good in the long run). I have two feeds, one at each end, with no boosters and a 400' + run. No problems. I'm about 400' from Choctawhatchee Bay, which feeds into the Gulf of Mexico and use mostly LGB brass track. Again, no problems with conductivity or oxidation.
 
My doctor said that when you get to a certain age they stop looking down your throat and start looking up your bum.

I am of the latter age it appears.

As for the wiring I would go for the highest guage available for the DCC buss with droppers to the rail of a smaller guage. I would also use power districts to make fault finding easier.
 
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