Is there a colour standard for accessory bus wiring?

[Bucoops]

I'm actually quite surprised there isn't a wiring standard being that DCC is described in a standard. Seems to be a conspicuous omission.

 

Hmm that was a big word for me, I need to lie down now.

[Junctionmad]

On 03/03/2019 at 20:05, Phil S said:

As model railway wiring is 'low voltage' - typically 5v-24V,  then it can be useful to look at 'automotive' parts ( and wiring ) suppliers.

As a result of being for a low voltage, a range using less-plastic in the sleeving is available and, it seems, increasingly common in cars.

This saves weight - important for cost and fuel saving in moving vehicles BUT ALSO useful with portable model railway layouts ... reduction in carrying weight being a good consideration.   The current rating - based on heating effect/dissipation is also higher due to having less (heat) insulation  ... but for the model railway, it is the voltage drop through resistance that is the important consideration - for minimal drop / brown out at full current, and the ability for the 'short circuit current' to be high enough to trip the protective device.

Car suppliers offer a range of main and trace colours - but not all are  'off  the shelf' - some may need to be custom made at 100m minimums.

I’ve priced what’s known as thin insulation wiring ( ie car wiring ) from several trade suppliers 

 

it’s actually dearer to joe public then conventional high voltage insulation equipment hook

up wire. 

 

Hence while undoubtably GM gets an advantage , you and I unfortunately don’t, as a result it’s not much use to us. 

 

Dave 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Junctionmad

[Phil S]

32 minutes ago, Junctionmad said:

"I’ve priced what’s known as thin insulation wiring ( ie car wiring ) from several trade suppliers

it’s actually dearer to joe public then conventional high voltage insulation equipment hook

up wire.

Hence while undoubtably GM gets an advantage , you and I unfortunately don’t, as a result it’s not much use to us.  "

My prime consideration was - as I mentioned - the reduced weight which is, for us, important for our portable layouts.  [ Our layouts use aluminium Square tube framing with XPS bases, and an entire twin level 5.4m x 1.5m layout can be lifted and moved by just 2 people. -  adding feedback wiring to 80 detectors/ sections adds considerably to the weight over that of the 6 busses currently used - and since I also wanted specific combinations of trace wiring colours for easy identification, the cost was a secondary issue in comparison.  The wire is also easier to strip and flex.  There is also enough plastic around elsewhere in the world.

Obviously for those building static, or 'heavy' transportable layouts, they will find their own balance of merits and demerits with any choice, with a different result.

 

[Junctionmad]

2 hours ago, Phil S said:

My prime consideration was - as I mentioned - the reduced weight which is, for us, important for our portable layouts.  [ Our layouts use aluminium Square tube framing with XPS bases, and an entire twin level 5.4m x 1.5m layout can be lifted and moved by just 2 people. -  adding feedback wiring to 80 detectors/ sections adds considerably to the weight over that of the 6 busses currently used - and since I also wanted specific combinations of trace wiring colours for easy identification, the cost was a secondary issue in comparison.  The wire is also easier to strip and flex.  There is also enough plastic around elsewhere in the world.

Obviously for those building static, or 'heavy' transportable layouts, they will find their own balance of merits and demerits with any choice, with a different result.

 

Your choice is of course your choice 

 

on 7/0.2 the weight saving amounts to some 100 g per 100 metres arguable maybe 10-30 g per baseboard 

 

even at 25/0.2 the weight saving is about 1 Kg per 100metres 

 

again typically less then 100g per typical baseboard 

 

in my case having designed and built a 20 baseboard O gauge exhibition layout , using 6mm ply laminated with fibreglass , the baseboard construction techniques and scenary used will dwarf any minuscule savings on wiring 

 

as we use a layout bus, we don’t have all that much wire anyway  

 

bit let’s not let facts get in the way of a good idea ! 

 

Cheers 

dave 

Edited March 4, 2019 by Junctionmad

[Dungrange]

Thanks everyone for confirming that there is no colour standard for DCC bus wiring.  In some respects that seems strange, but for a layout with multiple power districts, I can see that it makes sense that a different colour pair is used for each power district and it would therefore be easy to use up the limited range of distinct colours highlighted earlier rather quickly if say red and black were used for power district one, grey and orange for power district two etc, etc.

 

In my case either the track bus or the accessory bus will be red and black because I've already bought some 2.5mm cable for that purpose.  I'll therefore just order a couple of different colours for the accessory bus.  I'll probably stick with frog wires being green since I think I have quite a bit of green 16/0.2 wire that I picked up cheaply from my local Maplin's closing down sale.  

[melmerby]

3 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

  I'll therefore just order a couple of different colours for the accessory bus.  I'll probably stick with frog wires being green since I think I have quite a bit of green 16/0.2 wire that I picked up cheaply from my local Maplin's closing down sale.  

You were lucky

The wire at the closing down Maplins I used wasn't particularly cheap and when I tried to make an offer for some complete drums of the stuff, It was shunned as they wouldn't go below the closing down 30% off per metre.

It wasn't worth it as a drum bought elsewhere would have been much cheaper.

[Dungrange]

Admittedly I visited my local Maplin's several times, including on the very last day that they were open, when I picked up some random cable drums for a £1 each.  That wire's not suitable for a DCC bus, but I was sure that once stripped, I'll eventually find a use for several hundred metres of telephone cable - most likely to wire LEDs into buildings.  I suspect that the branch that was closest to me was one of the last ones to close, because I frequently went in during the preceding weeks and they seemed to have new stock (which I think had probably been transferred from another store).

[melmerby]

9 hours ago, Dungrange said:

Admittedly I visited my local Maplin's several times, including on the very last day that they were open, when I picked up some random cable drums for a £1 each. 

There is the difference.

I was at the one in Birmingham a couple of hours before it was to shut and the cable was still not at "firesale" prices.