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I have TMCC and was wondering if 18 guage wire is the right size to power my layout. My Lionel Fastrack book shows a layout using 18 guage wire for the track. The layout size was 16 x 18 foot. I've heard 16 guage from everything I've read on the forums. But it worked on this track layout  that was shown in the fastrack book. So, could I get away with 18 guage wire as shown in the book?

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IMO, Rick's thoughts are in line with reality.  I prefer 12 ga buss or home runs.  When calculating distance and power drop remember to consider out and back travel.  A 20 foot run equals 40 feet of travel.

 

I use 18 ga for short drops, frog feeds and turnout motors.  I believe you will be disapointed with 18 ga basic power connections.

I use 14 ga on a loop of 12 by 14 feet fed at four places in a star configuration. BTW, much of the "copper" wire is copper clad aluminum which has about 1 3/4 the resistance of pure copper. So you might go up a gauge (down in ga number) if you get that wire. And it's called CCA wire...usually the only mention of what it really is.

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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