Labeling feeders and wires

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

My last layout, I didn’t label nuthin’. I also used a mix of different color wires so every wire needed to be traced if there was a problem.

Now I know better, at least about wire color. It would seem like a good idea to add label. I saw a youtube vid, where the guy modeled a prototype and he had names for towns and yards and used an abbreviation for the name, then a letter for the turn out then numbers for aLL the wires going to tortoises and terminal strips.

I am not doing a prototype and don’t really feel that I need to pick names right now. A straight numbering system 1 to 100, might be better than nothing, but in 5 years I’m still going to have to trace wire # 27 from start to finish because I won’t remember the wires in the 20’s went to the yard in the 3rd power block.

Is there a logical way to approach this or am I over thinking it?

2

I’d say “yes”.

Whatever names you use, just document the wiring with notes and sketches on a copy of the trackplan (handwritten is fine).

If you fear you will lose the wiring notes, make a copy and staple it to the bottom of the benchwork.

Some simple documentation is more important than the naming scheme, in my humble opinion.

Byron

3

Hi Henry

Having spent my working career in Public Safety Communications I used the same type of wiring documentation on my model railroad as I did at work. For most here on the forum my way is way overkill but the old grey cells aren’t what they used to be.

I recently rewired my control panel using good documentation and labels.

Pre-made stick-on labels can be pricy, I would suggest if your going to label your wires to use the pre-made. You can find all kinds of wire labels by doing an eBay search “wire marking labels”.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=wire+lable+numbers&_osacat=0&_from=R40&a

4

Mel really did it right! In my case, while wiring I labeled the + and - with a little piece of tape bent over on the wire. This was for the accessory wires. It was necessary because I have been adding lighting as I go. For the track, I made the diagram and indicated the block numbers and where the insulated rail is. I insulated both rails in every case. My DC was in blocks and I wired each with the DPDT switch, grouping them with tape. I would wire one block then the next, completing each one and testing it before moving on to the next one.

5

My current layout (HO 11x15 with lower level) was my first run into DCC. I’m no stranger to wiring and felt color coding was an obvious first start in identifying wires.

The main buss wires are white and black AWG 12, and the 8 power sections each have their own unique colored wire AWG 14. To get the various colors I had to hit Home Depot and Lowes. Track feeders are red and black AWG 20 and 22.

Turnout wires are 4 wire telephone cable (using only 3). Accessory wiring is minimal at this time. All wiring is cross referenced on a chart - color/purpose.

I originally bought tags for the wires but found it just wasn’t necessary - although labeling the turnout wires would have been a good choice.

When I get into signaling, then taped on labels will be the norm.

6

Mel I like your style. If I don’t tend to over doing it, it will lapse into my natural slacker style.

Label makers these days no longer emboss letters into garish colored plastic tape. The same company makes a much more user friendly version that prints out on white tape. Here is one example.

http://www.amazon.com/DYMO-LabelManager-Hand-Held-Label-1790415/dp/B005X9VZ70?ie=UTF8&keywords=label%20makers&qid=1462838398&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

7

On the backs of my control panels, I labeled all of the switches, which enabled me to wire the panels to the layout without any having to look at the fronts of the panels and then guess which switch was which on the back.

I also labeled all of the terminal strips on the ends of my layout sections.

All connector plugs are also labeled, making it easy for when the layout sections are separated and have to be put back together, something that I’m in the middle of testing since my old washer and dryer went out. Had to move part of the layout so that the old ones can be easily taken out of the basement and the new ones installed when delivered this week.

Kevin

8

Henry I have a Dymo Labeler and it works fair on plastics and painted surfaces. The stickum on the labels didn’t hold very long on wire.

The 3M ScotchCode is pricy but it goes a long way and I’ve never had one fall off a wire.

&nbs

9

Wow, some awesome and sophistcated wiring from you guys! I labeled the main bus, which is red and black, and the individual blocks / power districts, also red and black, as I started out by wiring a set up that could be used for DC or DCC, so the blocks / power districts have both rails isolated, and go through the Atlas controllers, the same used in a previous layout with cab control, with 2 cabs, only now, one cab is DC and the other is DCC, and NEVER are they both used at the same time, as what ever I’m using at the time, the other power supply is un-plugged.

A real simple set-up for my small layout.

Mike

10

I use the peel and stick wire labels, you can get them at the big box stores. They have numbers and letters, so I label things like 1A and 1B for bus #1, 2A and 2B for bus #2, etc, and keep a record of what each one is. Every so often along the bus I’d stick another set of labels. My feeders are soldered to the bus so there’s no real need to label the feeders. I also use the same color wire for feeders as the bus, so connecting things is as simple as matching colors. I haven’t had much in the way of centralized control panels, on the last layout I was stretching things out along the fascia with Tam Valley Singlets driving servos, and the Singlet was mounted to the fascia in front of the turnout it controlled.

–Randy

11

I’m impressed with the various methods used to organize your wiring. I’m just about to run my bus line and drop feeders for my HO layout. On my last layout, I used 14 AWG romex for my bus, unsheathed the black and white wires, and then used black and white 22 AWG for the drop lines. For my turnouts I used CAT5 ethernet wiring, stripped it and separated the blue/blue-white, green/green-white, orange/orange, and brown/brown white pairs. These were perfect for my tortoises and facia buttons/LEDs. I controlled the tortoises through a Digitrax DS 64, which has 4 inputs, so I made sure to apply the same color pattern to each decoder: blue, green, orange, and brown. If I had crossoevers, then I just made sure to use the same color combination for both turnouts.

As I’m starting the wiring for my new layout, I was wondering whether I’m in need of more sophicated organizational system. I use PSX cirtuit breakers for my 3 power districts and another to operate my turnouts. My layout will only have about 15 turnouts, a turntable, and I plan to add block detection, signals, and lights to structures/streets. In the past I used color-coded zip ties to represent the each power district, and the CAT5 colored wires for the turnouts. Do you folks think I will need something more developed?

12

Simple, Any LION can do it! (Barrier strips are too expensive for a LION)

Here is the Operations and Maintenance Manual. Wiring is documente near the back.

13

Mr. Lion

After looking at your manual I’m afraid you have put the rest of us on this forum to shame on documentation!!!

That is the absolutely the best Model Railroad/Hobby documentation I’ve ever seen!!!

I just thought I did pretty good with mine until I saw your PDF.

I have a new goal!

You really are the King of the Empire!

14

Hello all,

As a former electrician we used colors and numbers to setup lighting systems from small club applications all the way to stadium venues.

Most of the connectors in touring lighting systems are large enough to wrap in colored tape and then label numerically.

A former master electrician I apprenticed under said, “Colors are universal, you don’t have to read a color.”

The connectors on model railroads are much smaller. You can use colored tape bands; think resistors, and then use a numerical flags (if necessary).

My wife is a veterinary technician, they use colored tape bands to mark surgical instruments when assembling surgical packs. The brand name they use is Tape 'n Tell manufactured by HenrySchein. It’s 1/4-inch wide and can withstand an autoclave. The white is great for making control panels.

I found an 8-color pack on Amazon for $26.89 (with free shipping).

Combining these with colored electrical tape will allow you to color code your wiring in a multitude of combinations.

As an example, you can have a master color for boosters; lets say yellow electrical tape (wider than the Tape 'n Tell). Then have bands of thinner tape to specify a particular section or block.

Just like resistor code you “read” from the wide to the thin.

If you need more coding you can add a numerical flag on the end; yellow wide, white, yellow, green, blue, black, red, brown, orange, 01.

For single digits I prefer to add a zero as a prefix, I also underline a 6 or 9 for clarity.

As I’ve seen posted on these forums, many tele communications technicians are used to color-banding in multi-paired analog cables.

You don’t have to use all the tape colors to get accurate coding. The number of color bands can be a numeric reference.

In my booster example you can use

15

Thanks Randy!

I haven’t checked out what’s available in several years so I had my wife pickup a package of Ideal Wire Markers at Home Depot today after reading your post. They look as good as the 3M at a much better price, $7.96.

They also have Neg, Pos, Gnd, Neut, +, -, AC & DC as well as numbers.

Mel

Modeling the early to mid

16

jjdamnit: color coding is good unless you are color blind. Not totally color blind, but can’t tell greens from browns or browns from orange. We always used numbers and documented what wire went from where to where. Another problem ( not usually in a home ) is High Pressure Sodium lighting. This is the lighting that looks orange. It changes the color of what you are looking at. It makes some colors disappear.

rrmel: When using the wrap around wire numbers, try to get multiple wraps on a wire. Over time the numbers fade and collect dirt. This way you can peel back a layer to be sure you are looking at the correct number.

The most important item is documation. Broadway Lion is absolutly outstanding. For the rest of us, a simple spread sheet or note book paper will do. All you need is a few columns that could be labeled ‘From’ -‘To’ -‘To’ -‘To’, etc. Like: wire number 005 goes from Booster #1 ‘To’ yard lead, ‘To’ round house, ‘To’ etc.

17

As you noticed on wire of LION, all wires were white. These came from cables attached to an old pipe organ in our church. We sold the organ to someone who wanted to restore it, and he just cut the cables and left them behind. The LION collected and carted them up to the train room where they sat for many years until him kneaded them for this layout.

These are as was said old cables, the kind with no plastic or rubber insulation. All of the conductors were insulated with waxed string. paper and more string and wax.

Inside there were six bundles of 11 conductors each. I opened and unraveled this cable until I was down to the 11 conductor “strings” (they looked like strings).

Since each platform edge required 5 conductors for detections, signals, and the starting relay, and since platform edges come in pears, these “strings” were purrfect. But there were 11 white conductors, and so I connected voltage to a single wire, and then walked around the table to the other end of “string” and tested each wire until my test lamp came on and then connected that wire to the correct terminal.

Simple.

Give me a ROAR

ROAR