Questions Before We Shut Power Off?

S.C.,

Do you have TMCC signal problems presently (before the new dedicated line)?  If you don't then the new line shouldn't hurt anything.  If you do it might help, but:

1. Houses built within the last 60 to 65 years have three-wire wiring, Black (Hot), Neutral (White) ,and Ground (Bare or Green) conductors all present in each circuit run, for safety reasons.  TMCC uses this ground conductor as part (one pole) of it's transmitter's antenna.  The outside rail of your layout is the other pole.
2. The issue with houses older than this is a lack of ground conductors.  You've indicated that you only have one currently, and are thinking about adding another via the proposed new dedicated line.  This is better but it's not like the web of ground conductors routed through the whole house as found in newer construction.
3. It would be very pricey to retrofit such a web, whole hog, to your entire vintage home.  Although if you had it done it would help TMCC and Legacy, it would also generally increase electrical safety within your house.

Should you go whole hog?  It's up to you.  It's your money.

If you don't go whole hog, and you end up with TMCC/Legacy signal issues either before or after running the new dedicated line, there is another solution, one which will improve TMCC/Legacy signals, but not the electrical safety of your house.  (It won't make it worse however).

Purchase, or requisition an existing, 100 ft long grounded extension cord (3 Prongs and 3 wires all the way through) and use it to create a temporary web.  Insert its plug it into your existing grounded outlet, or the new outlet on the new dedicated line, and then route it in a big loop around the extremes of your layout.  It's not necessary to plug anything into the socket end of it.  You can leave it open, but the plug end must be plugged into a grounded outlet.

It also doesn't need to be physically laying on, or touching, your layout.  On the floor under your table would be fine, as would strung around and hanging from the ceiling above it.

Remember that your TMCC/Legacy Base-1, Base-1L, or Base-2 power supply must be plugged into a grounded outlet as well, either at the wall, or in the end of the new 100ft cord.

Many folks have reported substantial improvements with this kind of fix.  It's worked for me.

Let us know what happens either way.

Mike

We have a mix of old and new. As new outlets were added or during rehabbing grounded wire was added. I'm months away from plugging anything in so I'll have to experiment then. Having this electrical done I can move forward in the next steps.

I've read were you take the "plugs" off the cord and leave the ground only. Your idea about using cord to power the base is something I might try. Someone else said they had better reception when they stopped using a surge protector strip. Just a direct plug into wall socket. Someone here today mentioned he has success by plugging base into a power source separate from transformer.