Voltage & Amperage rating for Bus and Accessory Wire

No problem at all, there's plenty of margin in the insulation specification.   Don't use that wire for 110V and you'll be fine.

Good to know, many thanks!

Lashup50

John's answer is 100% correct. I'd like to answer your question with a question. I've not seen any accessory that requires more than 12 volts to operate, please explain?

Pappy

I was curious about that to so I checked a few just to see what the Lionel manuals suggests on some of the ones I have. Personally on my accessory transformer with a volt meter monitoring I don't think I have ever went to 12 volts to get stuff to work properly. So neither have I seen any that wouldn't work properly at 12 volts or even less. I have been told numerous times lower volts will help extend bulb life.

Lionel 164 log loader 12 to 15 volts

Lionel ammo loader 12 to 18 volts

Lionel operating saw mill 10-14 volts

Lionel passenger station 10 to 15 volts

Lionel Rosie"s dinner 12 to 16 volts.

My specific example is the MI-Jack IM Crane, I need about 16 volts for everything to work properly.  The issue is that some of the stuff requires less voltage and some requires more.  I ended up adjusting the drives of the various motors so I could balance the operation, that ended up requiring 16 volts when the smoke all settled.

I know if you power to the original Lionel Beacon Towers with a pw zw and boost it to full voltage you can get the lenses to spin a lot faster. So what's that? 16 volts?

I appreciate the input, Thank you! None of my prewar accessories require the high voltage. I did not want to hy-jack this thread, I apologize. 

Gents, thanks for your comments. Yes, I've seen a number of pubs that rate various post-war accessories with operating ranges of 9-14 volts, 10-14 volts, and 12-14 volts. In actual usage, the voltage required could very well be less than the maximum of the range - I didn't know as I never paid attention to the voltage rating of accessory wire I've used -ever. 

I guess I'll wire some accessories up using the wire rated for 12 volts and see if the wire gets hot at the upper range (12-14 volts)!

Again, thanks for your replies. Much appreciated.

The reason for wire to get hot has nothing to do with the insulation.  If you routed it properly, your accessories would run with bare wiring perfectly fine.  Obviously, it's harder to keep it from touching other stuff.  Look skyward, those 750kv power lines on the tall towers are bare wire.

My favorite trick is to take a florescent lamp with me and demonstrate that I have an electric personality when I walk under the lines.  It's an impressive display.

Out of curiosity, John, what would cause accessory wiring to get hot? I will start building my first layout in a couple of weeks. Better to find out the dos and don'ts ahead of time.

The current flowing through a wire is what heats it, more current, more heat.  Insulation has nothing to do with heating in a wire.  If you run the accessory at the proper voltage, I don't know of any accessories that won't work well with #20 or #22 wire, at least none of the standard ones.