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I have a very tight dog bone HO double track set up. Must I run the bus wire all the way around the entire track plan, or can I cheat by running one wire down the middle and hooking up all powered feeders on that line to the same powered wire?
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One pair of bus wires ( + and - ) down the middle to power all the feeders on one track line is fine, if all that track is powered from the same source and there are no reversing loops (assuming conventional operation). This way would actually be better because there would be less wire which equals less voltage drop due to less wire resistance in the bus (compared to a full loop around the perimeter).
At any rate, I wouldn't call it cheating because the connections would still be in parallel (electrically) either way.
14 ga buss and 18 ga drops normally for a medium size pike.
How long will your drops be with a central buss? Also, I like to curl a solid wire drop pig tail several times around a 3/8" pipe to allow for lifting a track due to an unforeseen service issue.
When it comes to building your RR unless it is going to be a temporary layout, try to avoid a "that'll do" or "that's good enough" mentality. Those thoughts can give rise to surging speeds with electrical short cut and derailments with shoddy construction. Especially with HO.
Tom and Steve,,
Thank you so much for your perspectives on this. The layouts track is 4' wide in the loops, and about 6" apart for the long straight section. Will be using 14 gauge for the bus.
At a 6" spread you are good to go with a single run of +/-.
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