Wiring question

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Has anyone ever used ethernet wire to carry power for a layout? I have left over solid core wire from a networking job and I am thinking that using ethernet wire with RJ45 connectors might be a relatively simple way to wire everything up. I am also planning to make the layout so that it can be broken down into seeral sections so wiring between the sections needs to be diconnectable. I am also planning to have slot car track in the layout (actually more running feet of slot car than train). I will have lots of switches so obiviously having only 8 wires per cable could be a limitation. However, if I plan carefully and use the same color wire from each then it should be farily easy. Could also use a patch panel to make connections at the main controller station. The patch panel would also then allow for a certain amount of reconfiguration and expansion. For example if I run the brown wire from each of eight cables to various points along the outside lane of track 1 I can then run a jumper patch across all the brown wires at the patch panel to make a complete circuit and could add an etire section to the layout simple by runnign another ethernet back to the main and tapping into the existing power bus. Concerns are of course the the ethernet wire can handle the current without wear/damage/fire.

I have also thought about using old SCSI cables - which have a lot of wires - however, even though I have a lot of them I am not sure if i have enough with the right connectors type (male and female) to do what I need to do - and the individual wires inside appear to be smaller and stradnded - so might be harder to work with.

2

Cat 5 network cable is only 24 gauge wire. WAY too thin to carry train power. It’s ok for Tortoise switch motors, since they only draw about 10-15 milliamps, and it’s fine to run to LEDs for signals.
I am building an 8x12 HO layout with DCC and I am using #20 wire for the power drops and #12 for the power bus to each of these feeders. #12 is probably overkill, #14 would work fine, but I am planning to expand this (have the room, just wanted to build something that I could get operational in a reasonable amount of time, and will add on later) and then the #12 will NOT be overkill. In N scale you can usually go with a size smaller.
If you are talking about a 4x8 HO layout with DC power, don’t use anything less than #18 wire.
For something REALLY small, like a Z scale layout in a suitcase, network cable is just fine. Extremely low current draw plus very short distances means little or no measurable voltage drop. But wire even a 4x8 HO layout with network wire and you are just asking for trouble.

–Randy

3

I found a website that has a calculator for Power over Ethernet at: http://www.gweep.net/~sfoskett/tech/poecalc.html which indicates that it could work - if I use more than one strand in the ethernet wire per power tap. But I am leaning away from that idea. Perhaps if I can do some more measuring of the acutal loads my devices will draw I will look at ethernet wire again. But it does look like 24 AWG wire is not the best choice for my application.