I plan to spend some time later today and this week wiring our 4X8 layout. It is a basic o27 set up with a KW and Williams engines. It will have an inner and outer loop, the outer loop has a passing loop and the inner section has a reversing loop - blocks to be installed on the outer loop - The layout is raised up in the ceiling for Summer storage so the wiring does not need to be dissasembled - A couple of basic questions that I need some help with:
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From the KW what is the best / neatest way to distribute power to blocks and switches that are not going to be powered from the track? Do I use some of the producets from Atlas?
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What gauge and type of wire do you recommend? (same wire used for lamps??)
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How about distributing power to accessories?
I will attach a control panel to the side of the layout.
Thanks!
For the size of your layout 18 or 22 gauge would do. Go to an automotive store and buy spools of different clored wire and have a color scheme. For example, with American Flyer, black is base, yellow is constant power, green and red are intermittant accesory power, and on my track variable (track power) is yellow with a tracer. Always stick with the code and lable everything every several feet while you are installing it. You will not remember which wire went where.
The power to the accesories depends on the piece. Again my experience is post war American Flyer and some accesories work the base and some the power lead. So I have a base bus and a power bus and then run the operating lead(s) from the control box as needed.
Above all take your time. Use new color coded wire, terminal strips and spade connectors, money well spent. Your layout is about the same size as mine so it won’t break the bank.
Jim
To answer your questions based on my preferrences.
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The neatest way to connect the transformer to the layout is to run the least number of wires from the transformer to terminal strips under the layout and distribute the power from those. For items using the same power, or common, feed a buss can be run under the layout and the track/atems connected with that. If a controll panel is used power feeds can all be in the panel and then out to field from there.
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I’d use 12 GA, min. 14GA, from the transformer to the distribution point, staying with the 14 GA for track power. For accessories I’ve gone as small as 22 GA depending on power draw. Lamp cord is usually 16 or 14 GA.
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Use any of the above.
The KW circuit breaker is rated at 10 amperes; so you should not use smaller than 16 AWG wire. It would be easier and probably cheaper to go up to 14 AWG, which is readily available as building wire. You can get solid and stranded wire in a variety of colors at any home-improvement store.
It is very commonly done to wire different parts of a layout, like your two loops, to separate transformer outputs (A and B of the KW). If your loops are isolated, this is fine. But, if you can run trains between loops, it can be dangerous. The KW is unique in that Lionel actually put a fine-print warning in the service manual, although the problem exists in all their multiple-output transformers: When the train passes between blocks, it shorts together the two transformer outputs, creating a fault current that does not pass through the circuit breaker.
I would use full-sized single-pole-double-throw-center-off toggle switches (or double-pole-double-throw-center-off, like this one from Radio Shack:
–just two SPDT switches in the same package) for your loops and any other blocks that you want. Use a switch for each block, to connect its center rail to A or to B of the KW, or shut the block off entirely in the center position. When running between blocks, be sure that both blocks are powered from the same transformer output. You can easily subdivide the loops themselves, to make swapping trains between loops easier.
If you mount the switches on your control panel with the handles moving left and right, it is easy to relate the switch-handle position