Where should you run your Buss Wires and Feeder Wires on your DCC layout! This video shows you where the best place is to run your wires to keep you feeders as short as possible. Nickle Silver Rail is very high in resistance especially for the N scaler which can be equivalent to 36 gauge wire.

hi Tom... i'm sure there a lot of guys that will be able to use this info... thanks for sharing.. vinny

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you Vinny.

Good one Tom! Lots of information for us DCC rookies. -Mark

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mark. Before you know it, you'll be a pro also!

real nice job tom thank you

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Your welcome Scott

Really good. Very helpful.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you Chris

Another great tutorial!

OK. Thank you! I'll go with a 12V 5A DC power supply and the correct resistors.

I'm having a lot problems since I ran my wires. I have no connectivity. I shall keep trying. Great video.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Bad connections seems to be the biggest problem when wiring every ones layout. All it takes is one connection that isn't making good contact and the entire layout can suffer from it. Looks like you just gave me an idea for a new video.

Looks like you got the same house wire I did. I got 14 AWG solid strand house wire from Lowes and stripped it and ran the black and white wires under the layout to solder my drops to. I'm using flex track too, and my layout is fairly big, and even with feeders at every other joint, especially in the yards, thats a lot of feeders!

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 ай бұрын

Best way to do it especially now with the price of wire

@riogrande5761

6 ай бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThings I hadn't followed the price of wire over time, but it seemed logical to use house wire.

I have a two-track Mainline N scale layout that runs through two rooms. I have no bus wires at all, and only have two feeders. One right where the command station is, and other one that runs the opposite end of the second room that powers the second half. If you use the right rail joiners, you never have to worry about power. This is just my experience and it works on my layout.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your input Big Dave. What size wire are your feeders?

@JacksonSubNScaleModelRailroad

6 жыл бұрын

Toms Trains and Things 22AWG solid core cat5e cable.

Thank

@TomsTrainsandThings

2 жыл бұрын

Welcome

Another good one, Tom. Thank you for the tips! i need to get larger (smaller AWG) wiring. I wired a 2' x 8' module with 18 ga. buss wires and 22 ga. feeders. I'm going to incorporate it into an around the room layout so I need to upgrade some wiring!

@TomsTrainsandThings

5 жыл бұрын

Robert, if your going to expand, I would start out with 14 gauge for the bus wires putting the source at the center and going both ways to shorten the total run of wire

Pretty good stuff! Thanks for posting this!

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thank You

Tom..Great video..thank you..Can you give me the link for the BUSS wire length chart please?

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Your welcome Terry. All the wire charts I referenced can be found here: www.dccwiki.com/Wire_Sizes_and_Spacing

Great video! I do have a quick question, though. Does the basic premise of the reverse loop work the same way for a wye? Thank you in advance!

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

A Y would require a reversing unit just like a reversing loop.

THANK YOU...for sharing. How far can you run Bus Wire from the PM42? I see a lot of modelers install there electrical equipment (DCC) on a board or even in a drawer with long runs of Bus Wire. What do you think?

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Your welcome. Since there is only one set of buss wires going to the input on the PM42, I see no reason why one couldn't place it anywhere on the layout and split into 4 districts there. The only reason I can see why it's always placed near the control panel is to see the LED's when there is a short on the rails. There is 1 LED for each district that lights up whenever there is a short in the district. The length of the buss wire depends on how large it is. Looking at the chart, if your going past 20 ft it's recommended to go to the next wire size.

☝

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you Ron

Tom. I want to use track that I can easily reconfigure. My layout cannot be permanent. I’m thinking of standardizing on KATO HO Unitrack. From what I have learned, it’s very smooth and reliable, very few if any derailments. I also have been looking at Roco GeoLine HO track. It also seems to be very high quality, unlike atlas or EZ Track. What I want to know is, if you’re familiar or not with these two brands, and how DCC friendly are the turnouts/switches? I want non-power routed switches, I believe, and insulted frogs? Can you elaborate on the turnouts, and also provide your opinion on which track you would use if you only had these two brands to choose from? Thanks.

@TomsTrainsandThings

3 жыл бұрын

I'm not familiar with either of these brands since I've never used them. Most manufacturers have a variety of insulated and non-insulated frogs, they typically will be called insulfrog or electrofrog as in the Peco brand. You can easily search online to see if these manufacturers have the two catagories.

Hey Tom, I'm running fastrack o gauge on a 14x16 ceiling shelf. I have a small transformer and a lionel 180w brick. If I put the power house on one side and the transformer on the opposite long side and then 14 ga bus with 20ga feeders should that work just fine?

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

Can't help you there. I don't do O Scale or Lionel. You might want to ask trainroomgary!

Hey Tom ok here's my problem I want to shut off track in my yards but on dcc you have to have two wires how do you wire a isolated track and what kind of on and off switch do you use thanks

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

In your yards you will have to gap at least one of your tracks and add an additional switched feeder wire to the track beyond the gap. You can use a small on off toggle switch to cut the power on this lead.

Hi Tom, On one of your DCC videos (Easiest Way To Run DCC Buss Wires On Your Model Railroad), at 14:05, you were showing a chart that showed the recommended gauge wire based on the length of track. Then you said that as the track length increases, the voltage needed to be increased in order to compensate for the added resistance. Did you mean to say that amperage needed to be increased in order to support larger track lengths? You were talking about Digitrax and the use of boosters. Are you actually connecting a wire with the weak signal to the booster to somehow boost the signal or increase the amperage? Or is this just a 2nd power supply providing power to a 2nd section of track? When you talked about AC, DC, and DCC, I understood the part that DCC was a coded signal that gets laid on top of the electrical current. The decoder then detects the signal that is intended for that specific decoder, that you called the road number. Does DCC typically run on DC or AC? Do you typically have 1 power supply for the track, and a 2nd power supply for all of the DCC electronics, block detectors, and signals, and then a 3rd for accessories like scenery and other lights that dont impact the running of the railroad? Should the track be AC, and then the other 2 should probably be DC? Thanks for the wealth of information. Im sure that I will have more questions next week.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Brent, you need one power supply for your command station to take care of the DCC signal to the tracks. The total amperage of the Command Station and your power supply determines what will be available for the track. Say you have a command station rated for 5 Amps. You can use a power supply lower than that rating. In fact the power supply recommended (by Digitrax) for most command stations (now discontinued) is rated at 4 amps at the lower voltage 12 - 15 V and 2.9 amps for 24 vdc. The newer one (PS 615) is rated at 6 amps. Most home layouts require only one command station with no Boosters unless your running a multi layered through several rooms and have ops sessions with a dozen other modelers. All your accessories are powered individually depending on the rated voltage, Most of them are DC unless your using something not model railroad specific or it was for an S scale or O scale system which operates on AC, The longer the distance, the larger wire you will need. That goes for any wiring, not just model railroading. DCC electronics do not run on DCC, they just interpret the signal. Some can run on track power or an external power source like a DS 64. A PM42 & PR 3 needs an external power supply and is also connected to the LocoNet. You have to read the documentation of each component you want to use to determine if it requires an external power source. A DCC signal is neither AC nor DC, it just looks similar to a combination of both. Since the signals travel from zero to the set high it can be read on a meter as AC but it is not like a typical AC signal that is an alternating minus and plus signal.

Hi this is Neil schwerdt from West valley city Utah I have a question to ask you ( Tom ) I just put in the PM 42 and ran the bus wirer s for each block to the PM 42. Is that right you need to ran saparte bus wirer s to each block. again I have 4. I really like watching your show on KZread. From Neil schwerdt

@TomsTrainsandThings

Жыл бұрын

1 set of bus wires IN, that are jumpered to each block. They are separated on the output

Hello Tom, I'd like to run a second bus line for my N scale switches & accessories. Any issues with doing this? Thanks, Paul

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

Not at all, I run several different voltage bus lines throughout my layout.

@paulderham77

4 жыл бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThings Do you use the same gauge wire for switches & lighting? And thanks for your quick responses. I really enjoy your videos TOM!

should it twist so don't have a lost of signal?

@TomsTrainsandThings

3 жыл бұрын

Years ago telephone wire was twisted to reduce interference. Some people still say tweist the wire, but I see no advantage.

If you just have one continues track with no switches do you still need the bus wire and feeders? If so why? The rail is just as thick as 14 gauge wire so what's the purpose?

@TomsTrainsandThings

3 жыл бұрын

Copper wire has less resistance than the track, and you also have to deal with the bad connections between rail sections. www.electronics-notes.com/articles/basic_concepts/resistance/electrical-resistivity-table-materials.php

Tom. Will a dc power pack controller run a train on 300 feet of track? It's HO code 100.

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

Should work as long as it's not one of the power packs from a starter train set and you have all good connections between your tracks and enough feeders.

@randomcop9022

4 жыл бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThings thanks Tom. I've purchased a mrc prodigy elite but I have no idea how set it up. So I'm going to start with dc.

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

You have a good system there.

@randomcop9022

4 жыл бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThings I've been watching about 10 of your a day, trying to lean the ropes.

i'm just getting started in dcc. can someone please explain to me what buss wire is for?

@TomsTrainsandThings

3 жыл бұрын

Since the track is higher resistance than the bus wire. It's required to keep the required signal strength throughout your layout. dccwiki.com/Wire_Sizes_and_Spacing

so is the Q and A going to be a live stream?

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Hey Dave, The Q&A will be out as a video on Saturday but not a live stream. I may do a live stream Friday evening since I left out one of the questions because it was so long. It's in reference to the turnout/switch video.

Hi Tom Is 2.5mm wire ok to use for bus wires?

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Hi Chris. It looks like 2.5 mm is close to our 10 AWG wire which is more than enough for a bus wire. 10 gauge is recommended for over 21 ft for the larger scales like S and on up.

@chrisoconnell9384

6 жыл бұрын

It's only a small setup that I'm doing as I am learning from the very start. I live fairly remotely so limited to what i can get. I am running HO scale.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

I don't think the over size wire will do any harm.

Hi Tom I am very New to DCC I am having trouble wrapping my head around the wiring on my layout I will be using NCE powercab and I will not have a program track i live in a small apartment i will be putting 2 HO tracks on my layout both DCC and both will be oval and its going to be 3x5 that's how big the table is all i want to do is how to wire both tracks to my powercab and i watch your videos but i still dont understand i am sorry how would i wire my 2 tracks together to the powercab also i have the Bachmann EZ track and the Atlas track i may use please help or if you know where i can look it up so i can understand it please let me know thank you Tom i am sorry i hope you understand what i am trying to say thanks again

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

two wires from the unit to the tracks. Since it's DCC, you can use the same two wires for all the tracks.

@geo11211

4 жыл бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThingsthanks time I am actually going to a train show on Saturday maybe they can show me thanks for your input

Should the bus wire be twisted?

@TomsTrainsandThings

3 жыл бұрын

Not necessary, but some swear by it.

Buena noche, he visto

@robertoarmenta7757

Жыл бұрын

He visto el sistema recomendado para dcc, pero me gustaría que hiciera videos del sistema Z21 y explicara sus accesorios, funciones y compararlo contra el sistema digitrax. Gracias y saludos desde Jalisco, México

@TomsTrainsandThings

Жыл бұрын

Sorry, I do not do anything from Roco. Not familiar with their system. If you are looking fo an inecpensive means to operate your trains with your phone, you may want to look into this: dcc-ex.com/index.html#

Is that wiring cost effective? I mean, as opposed to spools of 12 or 14gauge wire that most of us are used to buying? If it is, I've GOT to tell Carmine about this, because wiring as been one of our roadblocks on the Pacific Belt, financially. On my home Layout, and Carm's Pacific Belt RR, we try to run feeders *at least* every 3 feet, with a 12ga buss... Thanks, Murph

@jamurphy8386

6 жыл бұрын

BTW, to put my Bro on the spot.... He's always told me that Nickel-Silver track has higher resistance than the old, crappy, hard to keep clean Brass track. You've been around longer than us - is that TRUE?? 😜

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Like I said in the video, you can use any wire available. The reason I used Romex is because I had some left over from a project I did at home. The 3 foot suggestion seems to work fine for me, but in some areas I have it closer due to turnouts. Thanks for your input Murph.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

I've never tested it, but I would assume it has less resistance than NS, since brass is used extensively in wiring everywhere. Except in the late 70's when they went to aluminum for a short period, then ran into problems with the brass fixtures expanding and contracting at different rates than the aluminum and causing excessive heat from loose connections.

@jamurphy8386

6 жыл бұрын

Tom, I completely agree. 3 foot rule, except for turnouts, diamonds, and other special trackage. We have another running debate... we run 18ga feeders (unless it's longer than 5" to the Buss). Solid or Stranded?? What's your preference? Thanks for responding!

@jamurphy8386

6 жыл бұрын

Tom, we've actually got some Brass Track, in an old TYCO Train Set... Carmine is going to compare resistance between that and NS. He might even have some Steel Track, for a possible shocking result. He's gonna get back to us on that.

Nice video Tom and good information. Two questions regarding using Romex for the buss wire. 1. Are you using multiple pieces of Romex that are spliced together on the layout or is it one continuous long piece of Romex? 2. How are you splicing into and what method of connecting the feeder wires to the Romex? Thanks. Phil

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you 1. Yes 2. solder where accessible, terminal board, wire nuts, specialized connectors. I have a video on connectors: kzread.info/dash/bejne/jKGDqJeBeLzLppc.html

@uptownphotography

4 жыл бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThings Thanks for the info. I heard about suitcase connectors which, I was considering and I think you mentioned 14 gauge Romex. What gauge feeder wires are you using? Thanks again. Philip

fyi, O Scale is 1:48, not 1:32.

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for pointing that out Brian. I'm well aware of that! That must have been a typo on the one chart from DCCWici, it was correct in another chart from the same page I referenced in this video.

Apart from you who know what romax is? Please quot wire sizes , twisted , sheilded ...PLEASE😃😃

@TomsTrainsandThings

Ай бұрын

I have other videos addressing this

Tom, the easiest way to run BUSS wires is to use Copper Strapping, no stripping, no soldering. Just lay it along and screw it in. www.rslaserkits.com/CVR/Layout-2016/2016-CVR-024.jpg See it all at www.rslaserkits.com/CVR/

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your input Will.

I’m so confused.... I just started model railroading and building my baseboard, I thought you just needed the rail joiners for power, can someone help explain this to me?

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

If you are starting out with a DC unit, you will want to see my other videos on wiring a DC layout. This one is for DCC. I have an entire series of videos on Model Railroading For Beginners. kzread.info/head/PLjjhnrIKSTShrzvkLrtppcNJ0zObTcDyv

@ef7480

4 жыл бұрын

You feed each section of track independently with the feeder wires from the main bus wires. This way, you aren't relying on just the rail joiners for power.

Uh........... *in head everything is scrambling*............. So I need one wire?

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

+Evan Walker a pair of wires. One for each rail.

For someone completely new to this, this is not easy in the slightest!

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

+JAZZ MAN Can't get anymore basic than this. Along with my other videos on bus and feeder wires, it should be clear in no time

For those of us O scale 2 railers. It is recommended that EVERY section of Atlas O 40" flex track piece have a pair of feeder wires in the middle. Never rely on joiners and do not solder the joiners either, it is mind boggling to me why people would do such a crime.

@TomsTrainsandThings

4 жыл бұрын

Those that never follow the recommended practices are always the first to complain when they have issues.

@AbelG8781

4 жыл бұрын

@@TomsTrainsandThings absolutely agreed!!!

Too many commercials. Try VIMEO.

@TomsTrainsandThings

3 жыл бұрын

Already on Vimeo. If you don't want ads, pay for KZread Premium

The whole point of DCC is that you don't have to have different sections of track !!! FFS stop over complicating this hobby, it puts people off !!

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Most DCC manufacturers make components to separate the tracks into districts for various reasons such as detection and signaling. Some other reasons for breaking up the track is for ease of troubleshooting and reversing sections. The point of DCC is to run multiple locos on the same track, in different directions and speeds with one controller. If you think what I say is complicated you should try reading the instructions for all the DCC components available. That's why I put it into simpler terms so modelers without a technical background can understand it better.

@GrahamWalters

6 жыл бұрын

I run a model shop, I build and sell model railway layouts, so I think I know what DCC is for. All you need for a reversing loop is reverse loop module which costs about £30GB, yes you can have block detection etc, but there is no complicated wiring involved at all, not unless you make it complicated !

@TomsTrainsandThings

6 жыл бұрын

Graham Walters one common bus wire pair running parallel under the layout is not complicated at all.