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  The incoming power for my house is on the north end.  The earth ground wire and rod are below the breaker box on that end of the house.  My train layout is on the second floor of an addition that was built some years ago on the south end.  The breaker box for the addition is powered from the main box. The ground wire is routed thru the attic from the main box. There is no earth ground wire on the addition end.

   I recently visited a repair technician in PA. to get a TMCC engine repaired.  His repair shop is in a spare room at his place of business.  In the time I spent there, I noticed that he was able to communicate with the engine with the shell off and the antenna unplugged.  When I asked him how this happens, he replied that he did not create anything special.  It just happens that the earth ground in his area of the building is so strong that he can communicate with most TMCC and legacy devices without any antenna.

  Although I have relatively few signal reception problems with my layout, I can't help but wonder if an additional earth ground wire from the addition breaker box to a rod on that end of the house would intensify the earth ground presence and the signal strength in the room

What do you think?

 

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Originally Posted by taylorra:

  The incoming power for my house is on the north end.  The earth ground wire and rod are below the breaker box on that end of the house.  My train layout is on the second floor of an addition that was built some years ago on the south end.  The breaker box for the addition is powered from the main box. The ground wire is routed thru the attic from the main box. There is no earth ground wire on the addition end.

   I recently visited a repair technician in PA. to get a TMCC engine repaired.  His repair shop is in a spare room at his place of business.  In the time I spent there, I noticed that he was able to communicate with the engine with the shell off and the antenna unplugged.  When I asked him how this happens, he replied that he did not create anything special.  It just happens that the earth ground in his area of the building is so strong that he can communicate with most TMCC and legacy devices without any antenna.

  Although I have relatively few signal reception problems with my layout, I can't help but wonder if an additional earth ground wire from the addition breaker box to a rod on that end of the house would intensify the earth ground presence and the signal strength in the room

What do you think?

The panel in the addition wired from the main panel, most likely has a (4) wire feeder cable that includes an extension of the earth ground.  The panel would have  a neutral bar hooked to earth ground, and a ground bar also hooked to earth ground in the main panel.  The other two wires are phase wires, 240 volts.   If you open the panel there should be two metal bars. One with white wires, (neutrals) attached, isolate from the panel box, and the other with bare ground wires attached to the metal box.

Subfeed wiring standard is the (4) wire cable.    

 

Last edited by Mike CT

There should be earth ground at every outlet and light in your house. If not, you should have an electrician check and see what is going on.  Since the earth ground does not carry any current, except under fault conditions, wire size should not be a problem. You are putting the signal onto the earth ground from the ground wire from your transformer. The location of the actual connection to the ground rod is not an issue. 

 

I have heard of some people putting an earth ground grid in the ceiling above their trains. If you are having signal trouble, it would not hurt to check to be sure that the ground wire from the transformer is actually connecting to the ground wire in the outlet. There are circuit checkers that can be bought at home improvement stores that will check to be sure that your outlets are properly wired and the ground is connected.  You just plug them into the outlet and a certain combination of three little lights should come on.  That maybe a place to start. 

One misconception is that for TMCC to work properly, there must be a ground wire that actually goes into the earth.

This is not true.

The third prong on the TMCC base power plug is the so-called "earth ground." But really its just an antenna. And for it to work as an antenna it does not have to go into the earth, nor does it have to be connected to your house wiring.

It only has to be long enough to act as a good antenna be and close enough to your layout for your trains to receive the signal.

You could use a long extension cord as your "earth ground" antenna.

Plug your TMCC base power plug into the extension cord. Run the extension cord on the floor around the perimeter of your layout and plug it into the wall.

That should be more than enough antenna for your trains to work properly.

 

I've run my TMCC trains outside, using a 12 volt car battery and 120VAC inverter. No house wiring anywhere nearby and not a single wire went into the actual earth.

 

Last edited by Flash

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