Im planning on putting up my lionel trains for the first time in 20 years, I Have a large room with a 20 foot high ceiling. I plan to install the track about 9 feet in the air around the room on a shelf that goes around the room, The total length of the simple loop will be about 70 feet. I know I will need the conectors to supply the power to the track I was planning on installing 4 of the conectors that supply the power to the two rails. the room is 17 feet square. My question is will that be enough. Also what guage wire should i use in particular to the far end which will be about 35 feet to the middle. Also rather than use the connectors can I soder the wires directly to the rails?
There will be no operating items except the train that will circle the room. Its been along time since I have run them and I am looking forward to doing this project. Any help would be appreciated.
This is not my scale, nor my preferred way of running trains, but I would say you should count on at the very least one set of feeds per wall, and probably two would be better. Yes, by all means solder the ends of the feeders to the rail for really positive contact. Gauge wire, for your scale would be at about 18 gauge for the feeders if they are quite short (14" or less) and use a 10 gauge bus running under the entire length of bench. Unless we’re talking about 20 amps or something like that, you should be well within safety limits with the gauges I suggest.
My one caveat to you is that you find a positive restraint method to keep your trains from making a pilgrimage to the floor under the influence of gravity in the event they leave the rails. Whatever that will be will also affect how easily you see them.
thanks for the input i have a roll of copper stranded 12 guage, would that work? I am not planning on having any other operations. I know you stated 10 guage. I plan to run the trains real slow just for the effect of model triains running around the room during a Christmas party we are having. I was also concerned about them falling also. I do appreciate your comments.
70/4 = one feed every 17.5 feet. So the furthest a train would be from power would be 1/2 that or 8.75 feet. I presume you are talking about the old steel high rail type of track. That should probably be fine, but personally from my really old past experience with Lionel I would go with six power connectors to the track. That would only be 6 feet max the train would ever be from power.
This is for only one train running, right? I should think that anything bigger than 22 gauge would work. Personally I would probably use 18 or 16 gauge.
I found soldering to the steel rails to be problematic. What this is doing is soldering two very dissimilar metals steel and copper. Get a big iron, clean where the joint is to be very very good, before attempting the joint. The problem is going to be the insulation on the copper wire melting before the rail gets hot enough to take the solder. For a straight but joint I would heat the rail first then apply the wire, heat it, and then solder. Once again from my way-back experience I think I would use the bottom of the rail. Pry open the bottom of the rail, clean well, insert the wire, squeeze the bottom of the rail closed and then solder. The wire should then hang straight down from the bottom. Another option might be to get some 2-56 screws and actually tap a hole into the side of the rail to connect the wire to.
12 Gauge will be fine for the bus work. If you get paranoid just loop it around the entire layout and connect both ends to the “power pack”. I think that over time loose track joints will be your largest headache. Use lots of drops and keeps joiners tight.
Clear plexiglas works well for safety but can be quite expensive.
Are you going to try to use your old track? I have been thinking about puting my Dad’s old trains up for Christmas. His track is in tough shape. I like the idea about drilling for track jumpers. May be some small sheet metal screws would work. More frequent feeders is a good idea. I set up a 4x8 loop last year and had trouble with the engines slowing down at the back of the layout. I don’t think you need to get carried away with wire gauge. 18 gauge lamp cord should work ok. 14 gauge romex is easy to get and would work too. Let us know how it ends up.
I think my electric stove is wired with 10 gauge wire. 12 gauge is overkill. What happened to just plain old 16 gauge. Its a toy train. But if you have the 12 ga. use it.
Do you remember the little coiled wires that Lionel supplied with starter sets? It was like 20 gauge or lighter.
I agree. 10 and 12 gauge is WAY overkill, 14 gauge is overkill. Even the 16 gauge I stated above is probably overkill. As pbjwilson says it is a toy train. Not a 110V. air conditioner or space heater. I used 26 gauge on my G-scale Christmas layout last year that was about this size - but of course that was brass track.
O gauge Lionel locomotives might draw an amp or two. Bus wire from maybe #20 on up works fine. Fourteen gauge house wire is popular 'cause new or used it’s easy to find, and it is mechanically rugged. Electrically it’s over kill, way over kill. Thicker wire (#12 c0r #10) is so stiff that is is hard to bend with pliers and hard to solder. I would never use anything thicker than #14, which is rated for 15 amperes, way way more than Lionel trains need. Lamp cord (#16) and speaker wire (#18 or #20), or door bell wire will be fine. Way back when, we used blasting wire (#22) scrounged from construction sites.
Soldering the classic Lionel tinplate track is hard, but doable. The steel doesn’t solder easily. It can be done only if the track is polished really clean, a big hot iron is used, and the right flux. Me, I’d try and find some Lionel “lockons”. Someone suggested drilling a hole thru the rail and securing the feeder wire with a 2-56 machine screw. That might work, but be sure the deep Lionel wheel flanges don’t strike the machine screw.