Someone suggested every piece of track! Yikes!! I have about 120’ of Peco N guage track and about 20 switches. I am thinking between each switch and at least every 12 feet. Anyone have any guidelines?
That sounds reasonable.
I agree, although there are many here who go to the extreme of one feeder/3’ section of track. I have had good luck with up to 8’, while most of my track feeders are about 4’-6’ apart. I have added a removable (re-used EZ-Track on a long shelf) staging yard that is off my layout. An entire length of 12’, with all those joins (!) is fed by two joiners at the edge of my layout with a single feeder set. Works very well indeed.
I can detect when my locos get to a point where they are starving for voltage because I can hear the reduced output where there is no change in grade or curvature, and where the rails are checked for gauge…not pinching. When I hear a marked change in engine noise that is unexplainable, I attribute it to a drop in voltage, and dutifully place a set of feeders at the midpoint between the feeders on either side of that spot.
As has been said many times before - about every 6 feet.
Actually this has been an ongoing debate here for some time.
Personally, how often I put in power feeds is directly proportionate to the difficulty of doing it after the basic layout is completed. For example, in areas that will be covered, in tunnels, etc, I put in a feeder every section or solder the rail joints. If you don’t you’re relying on the rail joiner’s friction to provide power, and we all know Murphy’s Law is strictly enforced on our layouts. Plus, I don’t change my layout very often, so there’s no ongoing reconstruction, at which time I’d suggest using all new rail joiners.
You didn’t mention if you’d be soldering the rail joints.
Is there an easy way to connect the feeders to the main power bus? A clip or soemthing? I’d rather not strip, splice and solder every 6’. I went down to Radio Shack to see if they had anything, but I wasn’t sure and the guy there had no idea either.
the 3M suitcase connectors work pretty well. you just have to read the label to make sure it can connect the two guages of wire together…
I’ve heard that they sometimes fail after some years, although I’ve personally never had it happen (granted I’ve never used them in a layout before…)
I solder feeder wires to the bottom of each section of track. So I do not solder any sections of track together like most people recommend.
Is it overkill? Maybe, but now I won’t have to worry about any loss of power.
Besides, it will be much easier to remove sections of track or switches if I ever want to make changes later.
Craig
First of all there are no hard and fast rules about this. Each has their own standards and frankly no one is wrong. The more redundancy you build into a system, the more reliable it will be. At some point you reach a level where the improvement is minimal for a lot of extra effort. I make my track feeders in batches. Cut, strip, bend, tin in a process that takes me minimal time to accomplish. I then place a push pin between the rails for every location I want to place a feeder pair and methodically drill all the holes for a dozen or so locations. Then I go back and install and solder the feeders. This way it only takes a couple of minutes to install each pair, no big deal IMO. My preference is to have a hard connection to every piece of track. By that I mean a solid soldered connection from every piece of track to the power bus. This might be a pair of feeders soldered, or soldered rail joiners to an adjacent track section. In one place I have three, 3’ sections of flex track joined with soldered joiners and one pair of feeders in the middle. In another place I have several switches in close proximity and probably have 6 pairs of feeders within a 3’ area. Do I need them all? Probably no, but they took little effort and very little cost to put in so I did. Anyway, IMO you can’t really say every 3’ or 6’ as this does not take into account the track complexity in different areas.
Suitcase connectors, available in the eletrical section at Home Depot. Fairly inexpensive. Snap 'em on, no stripping required.
I put drop wires on every piece of flex track and on all three ends of a turnout.
Now some will say that this is overkill, but I plan on keeping my layout up and operating for the next 15 years or so (it is 5 years old now) so I do not replace it every 2 years as some do only because they are moving. This is my retirement layout so it is here to stay until I no longer breath air.
If you do not plan on having a layout up more than 2 years a few drop wires may be all that is needed!
Also something to think about is that N/S track is not as good of a conductor as copper wire (and the smaller rail just acts the same as smaller wire – so the resistance per foot is larger). In a small layout this will not matter much but when you have a layout with over 2900 feet of track the resistance thing is a PROBLEM!
Adding more drops than you need, will also go a long way in keeping the layout running well even though the track connections may get bad over time (Simi-cold solder joints – broken drop wires – corrosion – etc.). I figure that if I lost 10% of the connections due to the previous mentioned problems I still would never know it. Over engineer the system and you won’t have problems!
I figure that I have over 2000 drop wires in my home layout (25ft x 75ft room) and I never want to have to put in additional drops once the ballast and scenery are in place. The 50/50 glue mix plus all of the weathering paint on the rails plus normal wear and tear of the turnout points etc. will add up to conduction problem down the road. Again if you are only going to have the layout running for 2 years or so, ignore this, but if you do not want to have problems down the road more is bett
Hello “pilot,”
On our HO scale Milwaukee, Racine & Troy club layout we installed feeders on every other section of flextrack, and that has worked out well over the years. However, we also soldered all the rail joints, so there’s no chance of a loose rail joiner interrupting the current path.
On my own HO layout at home I solder a feeder to every piece of rail, but I’ve taken a different course on soldering rail joints. I solder every joint in curves and at turnouts, but in plain, straight track I don’t solder them. Instead I leave an expansion gap the thickness of an NMRA gauge between the rail ends in the joiner. By feeding every piece of rail, I don’t have to worry about which joints are soldered and which aren’t. I know I’m going to have a solid connection to the track.
So long,
Andy
I’m in between layouts now, so this is what I practiced on previous layouts (both HO and 3 rail O). I’m sure some will be aghast, but it worked fine. Remember, this was common rail DC or AC wiring on 4x8 layouts.
For the common return bus wire, I used the largest gauge bare antenna wire I could find at Radio Shark (I think it was 16 gauge woven) that ran in a giant loop under the track. FWIW, I’ve reused the same antenna wire in about 3 different layouts. The bus was set about 6" in from the layout perimeter. Feeders were wrapped and soldered to the bus wire. In HO, my preference was for handlaid track with no rail joiners at all. This necessitated providing a feeder to every piece of rail. I used 26 ga magnet wire (insulated with varnish and easily stripped with sandpaper) for the HO feeders, soldered to the underside of the rail. Where I used flex and/or sectional track (both HO and O), one set of feeders in every block was plenty of connectivity. Feeders in O were 22 ga solid wire to fit the lock-ons. I have used the same 22 gauge wire for HO sectional track and switch machine screw terminals. Block and switch machine wires from the control panel(s) were generally 18 gauge to a screw terminal barrier strip.
For wire routing: When under solid plywood, I ran my wiring through holes in the joists to keep it from getting snagged when the layout was moved, yet at the same time not up against the plywood top. To make attaching feeders easier, I wanted to keep the bus wire suspended away from wood. At the corners, the bus wire would wrap 2 turns around a partiall
And there is a point of negative returns. The more stuff there is, the more points of failure there are. On our club layout we had so many feeds it became impossible to trace them. We had two blocks (main yard where the tracks of the two blocks ran almost parallel) that got crosswired somewhere. We assumed just two wires got bumped/smashed together while someone was working on a turnout or other accessory. It took about two months to find the two wires that were touching. This was not a unique situation, so since then, we have simply removed about 75% of the redundant feeds and greatly reduced our troubleshooting and maintenance problems. Each ladder (about 20-24 feet long) of our main yard now has exactly two feeds instead of the 4-8 they had prior.
I’ve had pretty good luck with what might be called a compromise: I solder two pieces of flex together (on the workbench) into a 6-foot piece of flex. Each of these 6-foot sections gets a feeder, as does every other piece of rail.
The only exception is, a couple of extra-long curves have 9-foot sections, but with two feeders.
Overkill? No doubt. But I’ve never had a problem, never had to add a feeder. As Mr. Murphy would say, if I didn’t do this, the one place a problem would develop would be in the absolutely hardest place to access! (And, by the way, Murphy was an optimist!)
I’m currently wiring a rather large “O” 3-rail club layout, about 30 x 50’. I tried several ways of wiring until I came up with one that works for me, and is easy. I’m putting in a power drop 14 gauge every 3 rail joints or about every 12 feet, or on both sides of each switch, since they don’t have power routing. We started with a bus and solder, but I wasn’t happy with that, and don’t want to do it 2X. So I started running 14 gauge bus, at key junctions or at least every 30 feet, I’m putting in a Barrier Terminal Strip, and then connecting from the drops to the bus, using the Scotchlok Blue suitcase connectors. They are rated for 14-18 gauge. (25) for $2.69 Home depot. I use Stakons on the wires at the Barrier strips. The Barrier strips allow me to disconnect sections to do troubleshooting, came in handy just tonight to find a short. I read the boards and polled some people and they found that when used properly the suitcase connectors are very reliable. So far so good. I do plan to run the Bus up each side of the layout so the longest run will be no more than about 70 feet from the power pack an RC controlled ZW. Dave
This is one of the Best posts I have read on the web this year! Thanks Texas Zepher for debunking this notion of feeders every track section!
Joe
I’m doing my first layout and I’ve decided to adopt Allan Gartner’s advice and make sure every piece of track is soldered to something. I’m not relying on a rail joiner for the power connection anywhere.
I’m laying down feeders about every 60", or every other flex track section. (Atlas code 55 in N scale is only 30" long, not 36" 
)
I’ve just recently gotten into a good soldering rhythm for soldering track together at the joiners without melting the tiny ties. I’m still working on getting a best method down for doing feeders, but I’ll get there
My system is analog DC, using the MZL system - which simplifies rail power control at the expense of slightly more complex switch machine contact wiring. I also use solid-frog turnouts and route power to the frog through contacts on the switch machine (or manual throw.)
I avoid soldering rail joiners, but I do solder jumper wires around each uninsulated rail joiner - #22 wire salvaged from communications cable.
The longest run of rail between insulated joiners on my layout is about 18 feet (six lengths of Atlas HO flex track.) The feeder is also the jumper between the two center lengths, so the maximum run from feeder to locomotive is nine feet of rail, including two jumpered rail joints. So far, none of my locos have shown active unhappiness with this arrangement - including catenary locos with two large open-frame motors.
All of my feeders are brought out to the edge of the layout, where I make my connections with clearly labeled terminal strips that I can work on while seated in a chair in the aisleway. All cables to control panels are routed along the table edge, and all switch machines have their wiring dealt with in the same manner. (Standing on my head under the table is not my thing, so I arranged to avoid it.)
I’ve been using this system for several decades now, and it meets my simple needs.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I’m currently doing a wire job on a big club layout. How or what do you use to lable your wires, terminal blocks etc.