help with accessory wiring planning

@HJS Great details on your layout plan and description.  You've clearly put a lot of thought into it.

A single common could be shared if: A.) all power sources are in phase (phased) with each other; and B.) the Common Bus wire size is increased to accommodate the total amperage of all simultaneous loads combined (maybe 12 or 10 Gauge).  However, I prefer to keep track power feeds and transformers completely separated from the hots and commons of all accessories using solenoids and coils/electromagnets because these release voltage spikes when de-energized.  TVS diodes are designed to help reduce voltage spikes, but disconnecting as many sources as possible from modern trains is also prudent, IMO.

Hot wire size and breaker ampacity ratings can be determined by temporarily connecting each group's total load on a test bench and measuring its current draw at the planned operating voltage.  I suggest selecting wire gauge and Breaker rating to be roughly 30 to 50% higher than each respective group's measured current, while ensuring the breaker's current rating is less than or equal to the hot wire ampacity rating.

With as many circuits as you're considering, 9 or so different bus wire insulation colors [one or two colors for Common(s) and one each for every Hot wire to each different type of circuit group] will help keep wiring more organized and make troubleshooting much easier.

OR................you could do what I do! (or, maybe not.)

been there, done that!   Great looking layout.   Hope mine will look as good.

S

Thanks as usual for the response.   Will bus the accessory lines with 16 g and 18 g drops to keep it uniform then check the amperage for each line to select the breakers. As you had previously suggested I have the track buss line commons separate from the accessory buss lines.  Was wondering about a common bus for the accessory lines.   However as I map these out it doesn't seem to save much.

Would anyone out there on the forum comment on the model coal loaders that work with fasttrack.   I know there is a plug and play version but will the older versions like the  6-14107 fit over fasttrack.

Any comments on how to troubleshoot the burning watchtower issue with the action figures that stopped working.

Thanks again for all the help.

H

As an alternative, may I suggest using 12-24 port (depending on how many accessories you have to hook up to a particular voltage output) distribution boards such as those made by MTH (and also available possibly cheaper on the internet) instead of running bus wires.

I have one distribution board set up for 10 acv and one for 14 acv. I simply connect my respective power source to the board and then run wires from the board to each accessory that uses that voltage. For accessories that use 18acv, I connect them to the same distribution board that provides the power drops to my layout, but you could easily use a separate 18 acv source and d-board.

I think having a 10 acv, 14 acv and 18 acv board will provide enough power for your accessories. If an accessory calls for a different voltage - say 16 acv, I just use a slightly lower voltage source, such as the 14 acv board, and that is generally sufficient to operate/power the accessory.

Obviously, if you wanted to get more specific, you could buy five distribution boards and use five different power sources to get a separate board for 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 acv to operate/power your accessories.     

R

Thanks for the response.  I should have mentioned that I plan to use distribution boards within each of the 5 tables to power grouped accessories at those locations.  The buss structure in my case would be 16 g from the transformer to the different distribution boards for the 6 groups on the central table and then 16 jumpers to connect the same accessory distribution board on the other 4 tables.   So for instance the building light buss would have at least one distribution board under each table that are interconnected by a 16g wire.   The street light buss will likely have  multiple distributions boards per table.  Does that make sense.   As Steve points out I need to determine the load for each accessory buss/distribution group to figure out the appropriate circuit breaker amperage for that group.

I will likely run all the incandescent lights for the building and lamp post groups at 12 volts, switches at 14 volts, operating accessories at 14 volts, accessory tracks at 12volts and the cars with lighted head lights at 5-6 volts.

H