Multiple Ground Plane Questions as to placement and material to use for largescale layout

the club had a ground plane issue in a tunnel under 4 tracks.   we ran a wire at the spot the engine stalled to the nearest earth ground.  signal issue gone.

the wire was about 3 feet long. 

just put it where it is needed.

Physically, the engine has to be between the outside rails and the house ground wire. The engine's antenna has to be exposed to the house ground wire. If you have an upper rail system, then that can block the engines antenna's ability to "see" the house ground wire in the ceiling or walls of the room. So the fix is to install a wire connected to the house ground wire system that is over or somewhat alongside the engine. That restores the engines' position between the outside rails on the track and the house ground wire. You can connect the extra wire to the house ground wire system by connection to pin #5 on the DB9 connector on the Legacy base.

BTW, there is nothing "plane" about it and the fix is not to "shield" anything. It's to  restore exposing the antenna in the engine to the house ground wire.

more here

http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=317

I have used aluminum foil tape, copper tape, and wire to retrofit a multi-level layout with lots of bridges and tunnels.  For installation on this already-built layout where the track was on painted plywood (ballast not yet applied), copper tape (1/4 or 3/8" wide) applied to the top surface is easiest.  I also used alum. foil tape on the underside of elevated track plywood but the 2" width required a lot of crimping and bunching of the tape on curves and around support piers.  Fortunately, the alum. foil crimps almost flat so it was not visible.  Connecting the tapes to wires leading to ground connections was done by crimping ring connectors to the wire and screwing the ring into the tape.  I soldered some copper tape joints.

Running wire on this layout was the most difficult because a lot of staples, duct tape, etc. were required to keep the wire routed where I wanted it and flat on the surface.  Tape went on quickly.

Since your installation is new construction and you can apply tape to the ply before all the support piers and joists are fixed in place, aluminum foil tape on the underside of the ply deck is an easy solution.   I would install two tape runs between the three  main lines on elevated sections.  You want to keep the signal radiating from the upper tracks from swamping the signal on the lower level.

Greg:

I did the same as TrackerJohn. I laid aluminum foil (could not afford copper foil) between homasote and grass mats on the entire top level. I drilled a hole and use a bolt and washer set to connect the foil to earth ground. This way you can place or replace track wherever you want w/o worrying about moving or adding wire.

Joe

Here is a picture of the aluminum tape applied prior to assembly on my new layout. 

I too used the aluminum foil tape, (Heating/Air Conditioning duct tape).  As a matter of fact I have installed it on three layouts, all with elevated tracks.  I installed it on the elevated sections under the track.  It actually fits perfectly with most track.  Fastened a ground via a ring terminal.  Have not had any problem at all.  This has become common practice for me.  (Note fold the tape over on itself so that the aluminum is touching when joints or curves are required.)