Color coding for wiring an O Gauge layout

I use bell wire for most of my wiring.  It has two conductors, one red the other white.  For track connections I use the red for the center rail and white for the outer rails.  I keep this consistent for all of the blocks.  

For my switch tracks, I use the same wire.  The red always goes to the center binding post and white goes to the outer posts.  

I started wiring my UCS tracks last week and bought some 7 conductor thermostat wire. Each conductor is a different color.  I have a convention whereby I use the red, white and blue for posts 1 2 & 4.  Post 3 gets the brown wire.  The remaining three conductors are for future use.  

So as for a rule of thumb, I don't believe there is one.  Maybe modular layouts may have adopted a standard, but I cannot say for sure.  

Having worked in the trades all of my life, we would always tell the electricians how little they had to know to become one.  Black to black, white to white and payday is Friday.....LOL

I think the main thing is to stay consistent with whatever color-coding system you choose, and write it down in your track plan. You'll be glad you did when it's time to troubleshoot. 

IMO, The biggest rule of thumb is differentiation.  I use twelve colors of wire, multiply by  twelve colors of tape and 1 thru 99 in wire numbers.

When you really get into wiring a good sized layout you juss gotts ta get a system.  With a lot of switches it will take more than just three colors going to a few dozen turnouts.  With a multitude of blocks one needs to know how to follow a wire in the loom for trouble shooting. 

Some previously posted photos to give you a start:

This how one can power diamond frogs in 2 rail scale.  The relays are actuated by the switch motor of the turnout  directing traffic over the diamond.

 This diode matrix is how you can have one button control of an assortment of turnouts that feeds the 6 track passenger terminal pull through sidings.  One button push aligns all turnouts.

Red & green power the passenger main.  All blocks are numbered.

Each tape color on the panel corresponds to the MTH terminal blocks which are color taped path to their respective terminal strip.  From the terminal strips the pairs run to each block toggle.

These are handy wire racks which I normally keep on furniture dollies.

This would look much simpler if the track plan was just  an oval or two with a couple of sidings.

Each of the RR's above have about 1400' of track and about 90 turnouts.  Just too much.

Most of my wire comes from a commercial electrical supply house.  NOT  HD or Lowe's. 

Most of my accessories come from Del City.  Electronic stuff comes from DALLEE in Leona PA.

Anderson Power  Pole quick disconnects come from Powerwerx.

Thanks for all of the info guys.

I had all good intentions. While amply powered my wiring looks like squatters splicing lines to their huts in a third world country. One could reasonably assume that my chief electrician is part spider. I would be embarrassed and forcibly  removed from this wonderful site were I to put up pictures. I am duly IMPRESSED by what I see here. The best two things about my electrical connections are that they work and nobody can see them. I am running 4 trains, soon to be 5, and light over 30 buildings and accessories. (so far - so good) Now, about that fire extinguisher! 

Michael Hokkanen posted:

I had all good intentions. While amply powered my wiring looks like squatters splicing lines to their huts in a third world country. One could reasonably assume that my chief electrician is part spider. I would be embarrassed and forcibly  removed from this wonderful site were I to put up pictures. I am duly IMPRESSED by what I see here. The best two things about my electrical connections are that they work and nobody can see them. I am running 4 trains, soon to be 5, and light over 30 buildings and accessories. (so far - so good) Now, about that fire extinguisher! 

I think I'm right there with you Michael. I've tried my best to keep things as simple as possible, but always worrying whether or not I was going to come up short and not be able to reach a certain item (or make it back to the transformer) means I have extra wire under my table ... that I've taken to keeping in place with cable clips/staples. It works, so I'm happy. When I expand, I fear what I'm going to have to do.  The above photos, while impressive ... scare me silly! I hope my boys are better at engineering than I am!

Deuce posted:

Michael Hokkanen posted:

I had all good intentions. While amply powered my wiring looks like squatters splicing lines to their huts in a third world country. One could reasonably assume that my chief electrician is part spider. I would be embarrassed and forcibly  removed from this wonderful site were I to put up pictures. I am duly IMPRESSED by what I see here. The best two things about my electrical connections are that they work and nobody can see them. I am running 4 trains, soon to be 5, and light over 30 buildings and accessories. (so far - so good) Now, about that fire extinguisher! 

I think I'm right there with you Michael. I've tried my best to keep things as simple as possible, but always worrying whether or not I was going to come up short and not be able to reach a certain item (or make it back to the transformer) means I have extra wire under my table ... that I've taken to keeping in place with cable clips/staples. It works, so I'm happy. When I expand, I fear what I'm going to have to do.  The above photos, while impressive ... scare me silly! I hope my boys are better at engineering than I am!

I plan to use terminal blocks, color codes, tags, etc., but fear that, in the end, in spite of my best efforts the whole thing is going to be just a big jumble of wires.

That is the reason that I am asking so many questions, and doing so much up grind educating and planning. Soon I will be posting wiring diagrams for confirmation on my understanding block wiring, and switch wiring, both single and in pairs, using terminal blocks.

Yeah, those pics scare me silly ad well.

RWL posted:

Deuce posted:

Michael Hokkanen posted:

I had all good intentions. While amply powered my wiring looks like squatters splicing lines to their huts in a third world country. One could reasonably assume that my chief electrician is part spider. I would be embarrassed and forcibly  removed from this wonderful site were I to put up pictures. I am duly IMPRESSED by what I see here. The best two things about my electrical connections are that they work and nobody can see them. I am running 4 trains, soon to be 5, and light over 30 buildings and accessories. (so far - so good) Now, about that fire extinguisher! 

I think I'm right there with you Michael. I've tried my best to keep things as simple as possible, but always worrying whether or not I was going to come up short and not be able to reach a certain item (or make it back to the transformer) means I have extra wire under my table ... that I've taken to keeping in place with cable clips/staples. It works, so I'm happy. When I expand, I fear what I'm going to have to do.  The above photos, while impressive ... scare me silly! I hope my boys are better at engineering than I am!

I plan to use terminal blocks, color codes, tags, etc., but fear that, in the end, in spite of my best efforts the whole thing is going to be just a big jumble of wires.

That is the reason that I am asking so many questions, and doing so much up grind educating and planning. Soon I will be posting wiring diagrams for confirmation on my understanding block wiring, and switch wiring, both single and in pairs, using terminal blocks.

Yeah, those pics scare me silly ad well.

I hear you. I went red/black for all my track wiring. I cut down on the amount of common/ground wiring I needed by putting my transformers in phase, which allowed me to run one black bus line (14 gauge) under my layout. I went red/black 16 gauge for my feeder lines from the track to the bus wires. I do have one terminal block, which I used as a "gateway" from my transformers to the table. 

Accessories got thrown a curve. I had 18 gauge red wire, but couldn't get black easily/cheaply/quickly enough, so I went with yellow for my common. I used it to also wire up my uncouplers (perhaps I should have used a different color). Oh well ... it is what it is at this point. For a first go round, the fact that everything works has me claiming success.  I do have a BC fire extinguisher at the base of the layout just in case though!

Good luck!

RWL,

   I am using the Red and Black 14 Gauge Quality Stranded wire in either a white or yellow shell.  I use MTH Terminal blocks, both large and small, my switches are FasTrack Command Control plug and play, which eliminates 90% of the switch wiring.

I hardly drill any holes any more thru the wood frame of my platforms, I use 2" PVC pipe hangers to run/hang my wiring thru out the Train Room where needed.  I also use the smaller screw in type plastic wire hangers where I need them on individual track drops. All wiring stays uniform and this method eliminates most all the jumbled mess and all the wiring is immediately identifiable, for any expansion or repair work that I want to accomplish. Over the years of building layouts I have found the simpler you keep your wiring the better it usually works, especially if you use the correct high quality wire.

PCRR/Dave 

Worked on a layout where the owner decided to save money using by using one massive spool for all wires. Ever try to trace an electrical issues where ALL the wiring is the same color and size?

I get wire free. Left overs from work, donations, scrounging, etc. Many different colors. Free wire vs color coding. Free won.

Hummmm....Ya know how it is said that one can be so close to something that they do not  see the problem?  Help me to understand how the photos scare one. 

Basically  it is just one wire or a pair of wires run backwards from it's destination back to the panel with a small excess.  then subsequently fastened onto the proper terminal(s) with a numbered tape when needed.

I just now labeled the above photos for better understanding.

Something find helpful for organization is to bore holes in the cross members:

Each bundle of wires are for the mainline above it.  I try to install the subway and  pre wire prior to installing the decking.

I have a friend who is very good at doing scenery but very poor at wiring. He was having some trouble with some switches and asked me to come trouble shoot. Sure, no problem. His immediate problem was that he used red wire for everything. Seriously. I asked why and his reply was that he wanted to save money. Sigh. When he ran out of red, he started to use white. The point of this story, PLEASE color code.

steve

I did do a isolated town with AC & DC powering a terminal block.  This photo should simplify the process:

The lower shelf keeps the reset button handy but out of the way.  Everything simple and basic, nothing special.

A hinged panel makes the install much easier.

The drawer slides are a HD item.  Available in different lengths as needed.  The drawer makes for easy old man access.

The two toggles determine what controls the area.  The left toggle switches from the main panel to the local panel.  The right toggle feeds either AC or DC into the MTH terminal block.  

Trust these photos will encourage you in your endeavor.  tt

I think next time around I'll try to be a bit more organized.

Regarding the DZ-1000 switch machine; the best pic I found showed the outside wires for, both, the DZ-1000 switch machine and the DZ-1002 remote actuator to be green and yellow.

If that is indeed the case, I would consider using those two same colors throughout the lay out. I might then consider white for the hot from the DZ1000, and blue for the common from the DZ-1002. I would also run these wires in bundles to there respective switch, and tag each end of the bundle with its switch designation.

At present I will have 11 powered switches, with 10 wired together in 5 pairs and one wired separatly. This means that i would have a title 6 remote operators.

I would then consider black and red for all track power, using centrally located terminal blocks and going out in a relative star pattern. I  will, now, have three main separated areas, being an outer loop, an inner loop, and a yard, each powered by a separate transformer, and each running thru a separate Euro Style terminal block, colored with a marker for its spacific section. I would then tag the far end and maybe in the middle of each feeder line, with the appropriate color as well.

At present I will have 3 power blocks in each loop, and 7 power blocks in the yard. This would require a total of 13 toggle switches.

Does this sound like a manageable plan

wild mary posted:

I think next time around I'll try to be a bit more organized.

Wow. One short circuit and you are gone!!!!