O Gauge Garden Layout Wiring

[Captain Cuttle]

I am building a garden layout and running it through a large shed where most of the pointwork is situated. Using Peco pointwork and a double slip which is the best size of wire for track feeds etc.

 

Regards

 

Alan

[Crosland]

I'm no experet on graden railways but I would say, for the outside parts, as large as possibly, partly for mechanical durability as well as minimising voltage loss.

[cliff park]

How long is a piece of string ? Or, more precisely, how long is your track ? If it is a loop, can you feed from both ends , like a ring main ? Mains wire is good, but may work out expensive, use 2 core, 1.5mm . If this feed is permanently fixed, say under the track, it does not need to be multicore/flexible. Don't rely on rail joiners, solder droppers to every length of track and make every joint as mechanically sound as you can.

[DCB]

Two amp wire should be a minimum for 0 gauge outside, 3 way plus earth lighting cable for two way switches is probably as good as anything but don't mistake a bus wire for 230 volts or you could frighten the horses with your screams.

Be careful with soldering, some of mine done with multicore solder oxidised and failed after a couple of years, quicker than failing rail joiners in fact.

Make sure your ballast doesn't touch the rails as much of it is conductive especially when wet and make sure the track drains. I abandoned rail pick up for my outside line at home as so much current shorted between the rails because of the way I ballasted with sand and cement. Father in law's outside extension in 00 on elevated wooden baseboards works well even when its raining despite limited droppers and the use of co ax aerial lead as part of the feed wire or bus.

[Crosland]

Two amp wire should be a minimum for 0 gauge outside, 3 way plus earth lighting cable for two way switches is probably as good as anything but don't mistake a bus wire for 230 volts or you could frighten the horses with your screams.

 

<Sigh>

 

"Two amp wire" is a totally meaningless requirement until you know more about the intended use.

 

I am guessing that you base your assertion on the likely current draw of an O gauge loco, compared tp the rated current of mains "lighting" cable?

 

The voltage drop caused by a fully loaded mains cable with 240V available in the circuit is well within design parameters and can be ignored. A few volts lost will not be noticed.

 

Put the same current through the same cable in a 12V system and the same few volts lost will be much more significant as a percentage of the voltage in the circuit.

 

You need to know the maximum current, the length and resistance/unit length of the cable and calculate the maximum voltage drop.

 

For a typical UK indoor layout it may not matter too much but a garden layout could be orders of magnitude bigger. Anecdotes about your FiLs garden railway are similarly meaningless without more data.

[davetheroad]

How many locos do you intend to run and what type?

 

IMO a solution without any wiring is the best. Convert the locos to radio control and battery power and you are good to go.

[kevinlms]

How many locos do you intend to run and what type?

 

IMO a solution without any wiring is the best. Convert the locos to radio control and battery power and you are good to go.

All well and good, but that means you probably won't be able to take your stock and run on a 'standard' layout elsewhere and the reverse is true. A common activity of garden layouts, is to have a running session and invite like minded friends.

[DCB]

All well and good, but that means you probably won't be able to take your stock and run on a 'standard' layout elsewhere and the reverse is true. A common activity of garden layouts, is to have a running session and invite like minded friends.

If you go R/C but keep insulated wheels you can run on any layout with compatible rails, or indeed run it on the kitchen floor without any track at all. AC, DC, DCC, 3rd brail, Outside 3rd, Spring powered, the world's your lobser, and Battery power is beautifully smooth compared to mains derived power units.

[davetheroad]

All well and good, but that means you probably won't be able to take your stock and run on a 'standard' layout elsewhere and the reverse is true. A common activity of garden layouts, is to have a running session and invite like minded friends.

Fair point, get them all to see the light!

[Captain Cuttle]

How long is a piece of string ? Or, more precisely, how long is your track ? If it is a loop, can you feed from both ends , like a ring main ? Mains wire is good, but may work out expensive, use 2 core, 1.5mm . If this feed is permanently fixed, say under the track, it does not need to be multicore/flexible. Don't rely on rail joiners, solder droppers to every length of track and make every joint as mechanically sound as you can.

 It will be approx 200ft in a loop passing through two sheds the larger one having a parcels depot and loco sidings etc  which we are building atm.

[Captain Cuttle]

All well and good, but that means you probably won't be able to take your stock and run on a 'standard' layout elsewhere and the reverse is true. A common activity of garden layouts, is to have a running session and invite like minded friends.

 It will be dc running diesels both kit built and ready to run including The Little Loco Co Class 50s.

[Captain Cuttle]

Two amp wire should be a minimum for 0 gauge outside, 3 way plus earth lighting cable for two way switches is probably as good as anything but don't mistake a bus wire for 230 volts or you could frighten the horses with your screams.

Be careful with soldering, some of mine done with multicore solder oxidised and failed after a couple of years, quicker than failing rail joiners in fact.

Make sure your ballast doesn't touch the rails as much of it is conductive especially when wet and make sure the track drains. I abandoned rail pick up for my outside line at home as so much current shorted between the rails because of the way I ballasted with sand and cement. Father in law's outside extension in 00 on elevated wooden baseboards works well even when its raining despite limited droppers and the use of co ax aerial lead as part of the feed wire or bus.

Thanks for your comments, I dont intend to ballast any of the outside track just in the main shed and may have a 00 track alongside on the outdoor boards as the fella helping me who is electrically minded is into 00 but only lives in a flat.

[cliff park]

Here's a radical thought:- presumably you won't be running 0 and 00 simultaneously, so you could bond both sets of rails together to help act as feeds for each other. In other words join the +ve 0 gauge rail to the 00 gauge +ve, and similar with the -ve at several places around the loop, then effectively you have nearly doubled  the current carrying capacity, and it should help across rail joints etc !! If you plan on using different controllers for each you just need a switch at each end to switch the feeds.

[Colin_McLeod]

How many locos do you intend to run and what type?

 

IMO a solution without any wiring is the best. Convert the locos to radio control and battery power and you are good to go.

A common annoyance on RMweb. Someone asks a question seeking help on how to do "X" and there is nearly always someone who suggests doing "Y" instead. In this case the OP asked what type of wire and the "answer" is "radio control" I'm not picking on. you davetheroad, just using your post as an example.

 

Other recent examples include questions about wiring a frog juicer that get a response advocating microswitches, or questions on OO track laying getting responses extolling the virtues of P4.

 

I think the next time someone is seeking help building a model railway I might suggest they change hobbies altogether so as to avoid actually answering their question.

 

Rant over.

[Phill Dyson (onslaught832)]

Either jumper wires or a bus wire is fine Alan, any thickness multi core wire should be fine Alan . When my line was DC i used single core wire for jumpers, but in retrospect multi core would have been more flexible & less prone to failed joints