Wiring help

Jack,

Imagine a pie that has been cut into eight equal slices.  The circumference of your pie is the inside rail of three rail track and the center of your pie is the transformer.  The radius of each slice is one wire from your transformer to that center rail.  The radius wire carries the power from your transformer to each pie piece or block.  To evenly distribute to each piece (or, as you describe, create power blocks), you have to do one more thing, insulate each piece of pie from the ones on either side.

Since it is always better to attach your power to the center of a power block, go back to the circumference of the pie example and put a small "x" on the circumference half-way between each radius.  That "x" represents the point in your track where you either have to use an insulating track pin, leave out a track pin altogether, or come up with some other way to electrically separate each power block.

Now, all you have to worry about is the power return to the transformer.  If you choose to have true, fully insulated power blocks, you would have to insulate all three connecting rails between blocks instead of just the middle rail as described above.  If that is the case, your "return" wires would have to run from each block's outside rail back to the transformer.  Referring back to the pie example, create a slightly larger pie around your first pie and draw parallel radii to the new edge about 2 degrees to the left of each original radii.

The drawback to the method I've described above is that you are now trying to connect eight wires to your transformer post.  What most people do is buy a power terminal strip.  You connect the transformer power feed to one side of the strip and the power return to the other side of the strip.  Then you connect all the eight power feed track wires to the power feed side of the terminal strip and the eight power return track wires to the power return side of the terminal strip.

Viola!!  You now have eight power blocks being fed off one transformer through one terminal strip.

Good luck,

Chuck

One will find with DCS it is best to feed one end of the isolated block and not in the middle.

DCS current likes to go in one dead end direction, it can get a little skitzoid when it has to decide which way to go at a "T" intersection.

I like the 12  and 24 port MTH terminals.

Goodness! This is nuts... Thank you for the help and hopefully I will figure it out. So if I connect the transformer to a power strip thing and connect 2 or 3 terminal track sections to the power strip, would that work? That seems like the simplest way to me

Jack, what was your major?  For any wiring just take it one "bight" at a time.  When wiring gets "scary" stop and run on your carpet/floor loop then on your track as you lay and wire it.

You must first decide if you're running Conventional (Control trains by controlling the voltage to the track as postwar trains were originally controlled) or Command (Control trains by digital signals sent through track to the engines and operating cars).

Wire a practice loop (carpet loop).  Test by running engine.  Always test run after every wiring session.

Glance through the wiring section on my website, starting here Toy Train Layout Wiring - Basic .

The following topics are included in the wiring section:   Intermediate, Advanced, Wire Management, Bus Wiring, 120V Train Room, Glossary, Wire Sizes, Switches, Load Calculations, Soldering, and Troubleshooting.

My toy train wiring background started with postwar trains, evolving to modern Conventional Control, then modern Command Control (MTHDCS, TMCC) with bus wiring.

Most of the pages have links at the bottom to email your questions.

Sweet! Thank you. My major is business for now. And I doubt I will ever use a command setup or legacy type stuff. Just a simple transformer for me!

Jack lets make this easy. Pretend your layout is a clock. The center is the power center and return,[2 wires]. You simply want to evenly distribute the power to the center rail at 12,2,4,6,8,&10 o'clock. Then connect the ground at similar locations. If you want to have "blocks" of power insulate it at the places you want to separate  Hope this helps. If there is a RR club nearby GO!!!

Jack118711 posted:

... I doubt I will ever use a command setup or legacy type stuff. Just a simple transformer for me!

I have two 90-foot mainline circuits around a 23' x 23' room with conventional power. One circuit has track feeds at just one place and it works, although I did solder some joints on the old secondhand tubular rail. The other circuit has feeds at two places. I don't think you need a lot of additional track feeds if the rail joints have good conductivity. My side tracks are separate blocks, some fed from the main track but with electrical switches near the turnouts.

An 8 x 16 table is not that huge; why don't you just try one set of feeders for your first oval and see how that works? If trains slow down on the other side of the table, add feeders there. If you want to plan out isolation blocks to hold different trains, suggest you post your track plan.

Susan's run room...impressive!

Roo (Sorry Jack)

Old fashioned way to evenly distribute power to a circle of track with a basic single block feed.

Using two equal length 14/16 ga. wires, fasten one lead at the 6 o'clock position and fasten the other lead at the 12 o'clock position.

I think I kind of understand! Thank you all for the help.