Does anyone have a wire supplier that has multi-colored wire sets? My layout is getting out of control and before I go too much further I want to re wire it the right way. A bulk distributor would be the best. Looking for 18-22 gauge.
Panels are located every 10 to 15 feet. The main panel is of course at the control panel. Obviously each pin can only be used once. Keep a notebook with all of the pin-out connections logged.
You get this sort of wire from you local telephone cooperative as lengths under 20’ long are hardly useable by them, or from a telephone contractor of the sort that wires up office buildings. You may have to pay for the scraps, or perhaps buy the stuff off the spool in which case you would expect to pay about $5.00/ foot or so but it is 50 conductors. The nice thing about this stuff is that you can sit in the isle in a chair instead of swinging under a table hanging by your tail.
So crossover No. 12 over there is controlled by wire number 16. You connect the switch on your control panel to pin 16, and at the panel closed to the turnout you connect the switch motor to pin 16. Obviously the lion runs a heavy GROUND wire around the layout: 14 ga bare copper is sufficient. The other pole on your switch motor connects to that.
LION uses Tortoise switch machines so (+)12v DC drives the circuit one way and (-) 12v DC drives the switch the other way. The same single wire system can be used with twin coil machines, and even with double crossovers: Just use a pair of rectifiers before the switch motor connecting (+) to the normal position and (-) to the reverse position. LION used this system for double crossovers where using remote relays: 0 volts = normal; (+) 12 = track 1 to track 2; and (-)= track 2 to track 1.
On a big layout like what the LION uses simplicity is important, and if what I said sounds complicated remember that it only uses one wire for the control switch,
Frys electronics sells both solid and stranded in many colors from 16(stranded) & from 18 to 24 ga in both solid and stranded. Buy the 100foot rolls. Their price cant be beat , at least by the many retailers I have looked up. Also the wire is tinned copper. For 12 & 14 ga wire I use Dale electric in upstate N.Y. Their price for 14solid is .09 a foot & it comes in 9 different colors. 12 ga is simirally quite cheap when compared to the box stores that charge .33 a foot for 14 & .38 a foot for 12 here in FL.