Fastrack Switch 14 volt wiring question

Well, for the switches, they'll only use a very small amount of power, probably no more than a couple hundred milli-amps during the switching, and a fraction of that just lighting the LED's.  So, strictly for the switches, almost any size wire would work fine.  As far as the accessories, it really depends on the current draw of the lights and any other electrical parts.

I'd expect that #18 would probably do the trick for all pretty easily.

Why not just power them from the track power and save all of the extra work? They are designed to handle command voltage. As John says they use very little power so using track power for them will not effect the power available to your trains.

Thank you for the responses. I was going to use phone wire for the switch drop to the bus. Since you mentioned small amount of electric and one switch at a time I guess bus line can be same gauge. The additional lighting would be a few track side buildings.

The reason for seperate wiring comes from Lionel wiring guide explaining switches work best and longer if 14 volts is supplied. Lionel also points out that the bulbs won't overheat at 14 volts. I know nothing about amp draw, wire gauge, ect. I appreciate your help very much.

Bob

I believe the wiring guide may be referring to the older tubular switches. The manual for the fastrack switches recommends 5-18v, no more than 19v. Fastrack switches use LED's as opposed to traditional light bulbs so overheating and burnout is not really much of an issue. I'm not trying to tell you what to do Bob, howver it would be silly for Lionel to design command control switches to eliminate the extra wires from the controller only to have the operator have to add wires for power.http://www.lionel.com/media/se...0GenericCCswitch.pdf

FWIW, I have strictly command for the most part, other than an occasional visit to conventional operation.  I run the Fastrack switches from track voltage, each switch draws about 70-80 milli-amps from the supply when idle, it's hard to measure the switching draw because it comes and goes pretty fast.   So, if you had 10 switches on one supply, you'd be at less than an amp of power for all the switches.  This is at 18 volts track power.

EDIT: I just measured a single switch on the bench, and I'm getting 30 milli-amps, so maybe something else is drawing power that I'm missing on the track configuration.  In any case, it's not much power.

Others may disagree, but with my command control FastTrack switches I have even removed the manual switch lever and wiring to run them completely under Legacy. This way there is absolutely no wiring required, and I can always turn the lamp to operate the switch manually if I need to. I run mine on track power, and have had no problems with any of them. 

Thank you all for your help and response. You have saved me from doing the additional wiring. I will operate them fully from track power.

Nicole, I have removed the wires for the lever switches I just left all the levers packed in the box. I agree with you that there is no point in keeping them connected.

Bob 

I have a box of controls for Fastrack switches as well.  I don't have all command models, but the others are wired to SC2 controllers.

I have no command fastrack switches, but I do have Fastrack switches.  I have 29 switches 26 are 072 rest are 036.   All are powered with track power ( I have Legacy) and operated thru SC-2"s.   Layout is about 2 years old.   No problems.