Gargraves Wiring Tips

I solder all wire to the track.   Make sure to use a Dremel  to scratch off black coating from center rail. 

I have the same question. Does anyone use clips that insert into the bottom of the rails?

I use these with both Gargraves and Ross track. They work great. Sometimes you may have to pinch the bottom of the rail together a little to get the spade connectors to hold better.

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How frequently would I connect to the track around my circle? As far as the wiring goes do I just have one main wiring line and then feeder lines that connect up to the spades/track? What gauge wiring is best to use for the main line and the feeders? Is there any special wiring needed to run legacy and conventional O gauge models?

I solder every 4 section of curve three sections of straight.  ( Inner rail power outer rail common).   I use 12 gauge my layout is fairly large.  I don't want voltage drop.    Feeders are the same.  I use dpdt toggle with a dedicated z4000 transformer for conventional and legacy I can then toggle between the two 

I connect about every 3 to 4 feet from a bus line that runs underneath the layout. My bus line is 16 gauge with 18 gauge feeders and I have very little, if any, voltage drop. My layout is 22' by 13' with 6 lines that run from two ZW-C's (which gets a bad rap on here by some members, but I have had zero trouble with mine!) and I run Legacy. We run Big Boys, Challengers, etc. with no trouble.

When I run a conventional engine, I push the ZW-C throttles up full tilt and dial up track voltage on the Legacy remote to an appropriate running speed.

I just like to over engineer just a little mine is 24x24.  I have double main line around the room size able yard. And soon to be town line of some sort.  My biggest thing is dirty track it seems I'm always cleaning it lol

TRAINWORLD carries gargraves track pins with red & black wires soldered to them, a bit delicate but great to wire to your terminal stripes. Gargraves lockons type connectors are easy to use. I put electrical tape on the center rail connector so it won't short out outside rails.

  My 4 main tracks are 70' and up each powered by z4000, running conventional, Legacy & DCS, I have used lamp cord wire for 20 years connected at just 2 points  (no switches) and have not had sny problem with power drop off.

  I also have 1 track powered by z1000 running conventional Legacy & DCS, I ,  that's 60' and it has 18 ga from terminal strip (16 ga to transformer) that is 15' from z1000.  

Braided wire is better than solid wire  spade connectors better than bare wire connected to terminal strips.

When I  set up a layout i always use 1 connection and  z1000 to test out current flow.

I always put a power jumper  connection on each side of a switch.

After inserting male spade connectors in the rail bottoms, I solder them for sure connectivity.  Then cover them with Liquid Tape so the water and Elmer's mixture won't contaminate the connection and cause continuity problems down the road.  

I drill a hole through the web, below flange depth. Place the wire through the hole, Then I use a 100 watt Weller soldering gun to make the connection. It takes a LOT of heat to get everything properly soldered in place, so slide the ties out of the way to avoid toasting them. Use a quality rosin core and i use a little extra flux paste on the rail to help knit the connection.  

  I have a 38 ft. layout. I have 1 spade connector soldered to the bottom of the track in one place only. In the beginning I thought I would need more connections but it's been running ok for over 20 years. That's one for the hot center and one for the outside rail.

I use Jim's advise! I use 18 gauge wire, and drill a 5/64" or 3/32" and drill into the web carefully, not always good to drill right through to the other side. Twirl the stranded wire, and twirl as it goes in the hole, heat and solder.

I never had good luck trying to clean off the black rail and solder. Only thing I could get to work was use a Dremel grinding stone, and that was lousy!!

Hope this helps.

Aquinas2 posted:

I solder all wire to the track.   Make sure to use a Dremel  to scratch off black coating from center rail. 

Absolutely agree.  Weller 140/100,  Pre drill a hole into the tie at the rail and use a 18 ga drop to a 14 ga buss on every section  of track alternating left to right on the outside rail.  You can knock  out dozens of drops in well under a half hour.

I also solder the drops to the buss when using a buss.  When I run a buss wire I preload it with enough pieces of shrink wrap to handle all the soldered connections.

Never had a wiring or power problem.  Never.

Two rail shown, 3 rail the same but easier due to light weight GG tinplate.

Tom Tee posted:

  When I run a buss wire I preload it with enough pieces of shrink wrap to handle all the soldered connections.

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It's the little things that can make a big difference in making the job go easier.

 

Ok so I finally got some time tonight to work on the wiring and ran into a bit of a problem...pardon my ignorance but again first time doing this so I am going to lay out what I did and if someone can tell me where I went wrong that would be great...

I took Dennish's advice above and purchased the spade connectors. I am attempting to run Legacy engines. I took two spade connectors and wired one to the outside rail and one to the inside rail and led both of those wires back to my transformer. I am using a ZW type transformer to power the track. I used 18 gauge wiring as my test wiring. I then wired my legacy remote control to the track as well using a third spade connector. When I went to power the ZW transformer it shorted (no power went to the track, just got the red light alert). Is there a particular way you need to use that spade connector? I fed the wire up the metal "body" and then fed the wire through that "little whole" in the middle. I then stuck that between the rail of my Garaves Phantom track. Do I need to wire the middle black rail instead of the outside or inside? All my track is connected, just have a loop? 

Any thoughts as to where I went wrong?

Thanks!!

Steve the Millennial 

Hot wire + goes to middle rail.......Ground wire - goes to outside rail.

Yep that did the trick! Thanks!!!