Ground Plane Wiring

I've found that ground wires work best when placed away from the edge of the track.  An inch or two is enough. 

I would run the ground wire on the bottom a little further away from the track than is shown.  This is the key wire to eliminate reception problems.  For the yard body tracks I'd run the wire down the middle of the space between those tracks for as far as I expect my locomotives to run.  The wires get covered up with ballast, earth, etc. when scenery work is done.

our you can put it in ballest or by the track or under the roadbed

matt, some friendly advice, STOP changing your avatar to something other then a picture of yourself or management might forbid you from posting.

Wow, I wasn't aware that a ground plane was needed for TMCC & Legacy. I can see why since it is radio controlled. I am also a Amateur (Ham) radio operator and the use of ground planes is very important. It helps with receiving and transmitting on vertical antennas. I don't have TMCC or Legacy yet. I'm still running things with the transformer, but I'm glad I ran across this so when I do make the transition. I will have the ground plane laid out.

Many people don't need to worry about the "ground plane" issues because they don't have any.  

The main issue with TMCC/Legacy is that the radio is very low power and is working deep, deep, deep in the near field.  The system spits the transmitted signal into the outside rail of the track and the house ground wire.  Majority of the signal issues are from secondary/induced radiators that could be any large ungrounded metal object in the vicinity.  The "ground plane" wires are an attempt to force the receivers to only see signal between the track and the house wiring envelope.

Hi  Chuck,

Could you expand some examples of what "secondary/induced radiators" are ?

I'm really interested about this whole thing called a "ground plane".

Any large metal object that is not attached to "earth" ground can become an induced radiator.  The system uses the third wire of the house circuit because (in theory) ALL of those wires are tied together and (in theory) ALL of those wires will form an envelope for track signal.  

Because the TMMC track signal is running at a relatively low frequency most people's layouts are extremely deep in the near field (+/- 200 feet around the layout).  At these distance the H component (magnetic field) dominates.  It can and does interact with nearby metal objects.  Because TMCC also operates at a very low power level you can actually get a stronger signal from these secondary radiators than you can from the original transmitter.  You have to either identify these objects and tie them to earth ground or place a piece of wire that is tied to earth ground or pin 5 of the command base computer port between the induced radiator and the receiver.  The later is much easier to do.  In many cases it's hard or impossible to id the secondary source (e.g. furniture springs, hydronic heating pipes, ductwork, re-rod in concrete, etc).  

The trains aren't having communication issues because of a lack of signal.  There is too much signal and it's   unbalanced or scrambled by the these secondary sources.  The H field effects fall off very quickly with distance and the E field takes over.  This is what most of us are used to/expect when dealing with radio.  This may contribute to why fixing the problem is problematic.