Ground plane

An overhead wire usually works fine.  We have found that too much metal foil tape is not a good thing.

Mike's explanation is technically flawed.  You will find more useful up-to-date information at

http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=691 and other articles on that site.

Are these assumptions correct:

Gauge of wire does not matter. could be 24 or 14 gauge?

Must be insulated!

One end of the wire is connected to the ground plug (round on a 3 prong plug); the other end is just lying loose?

With a zig sag pattern (one side of the track road bed, to the other side and back), is 6 inches too far?

Can the wire be routed thru eye bolts or would it be better to staple it to the BOTTOM side of the roadbed ( 3/4 plywood and 1/2 quitebrace)?

This is a problem and help is appreciated. All loops ran just fine until a couple of days ago when the lights started blinking and engines stopping.

Thanks

Brent

The best connecting point is to Pin 5 of the Base's 9-pin connector.

The wire should be insulated to avoid accidental shorts to other circuits.

I haven't found zigzagging to be necessary.

The more vertical spacing between the overhead track and your wire, the better.

Are you running a Legacy base?  Have you had any local thunderstorms lately?  I have measured a number of Legacy bases, and several of them had damaged output stages for the Track signal.  The fact that your situation changed abruptly could indicate a damage stage OR that some new or failing electrical device is causing interference.  Try using a portable transistor radio to "sniff" for interference as described at http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=317

I insert small screws on the edges of my plywood and then string wire over the plywood in a zigzag pattern under the homosote that is on top of the plywood. On my last layout, I wired  4 levels together and connected all the wires to a single wire to the copper water pipe coming into the house. A single wire under the track over bridges pigtailed into the homosote plywood wire.