Adding Feeders

[rick1127]

I have seen several questions and comment about adding feeders to ensure enough power throughout the track.  Is this as simple as I think it is, I add a Bachmann Powered rerailer to the same DC out put on my control box.  Have not yet finished the lay out so now would be a good time to add.  Oh yea I am running HO non-dcc.

[ebtbob]

Rick,

       Unless there is something I don't understand about using Bachmann EZ track,  why are you hooking up track power feeds to AC terminals on your power source?    Track power is usually DC power.

[rick1127]

Its called engaging fingers before putting brain in gear.  You are right it is DC.

[CNE Runner]

Rick - Just an additional thought: You can never have too many track feeders. I usually run 12 ga. wiring, under the layout, as power buses (I use good old Romex housewiring that an electrician friend gets for me as leftovers from his work). I realize that 12 ga. wire is really too heavy (14 - 16 ga. would be fine); but as I said the price is right. Using 3M Suitcase connectors (buy these by the box at a professional electrical supplier), I connect the 12 ga. buss wires to 20 ga. solid core bell wire (from Lowe's). The 20 ga. is used as track feeders and is soldered to the side of the rail. Since you are using EZtrack (I don't), you could attach the EZtrack feeder wires to the power buss; or you could drill through the roadbed and solder directly to the rail. Generally speaking I make sure there is a feeder to each siding and every 3' of mainline track. Yes, this is overkill, but I have never experienced a power drop.

Another point to consider is that you will eventually go to DCC. DCC is less tolerant of power disruptions/fluctuations than DC...so why not plan ahead? Speaking of planning ahead, unless you are building a micro/small layout, I would break the 'power grid' into 2 or more 'blocks'. If you experience an electrical problem, breaking the wiring into two (or more) portions will make troubleshooting much easier. It is always easier to do these advanced steps while you are building your layout - rather than after it is completed.

Ray

[ebtbob]

Ricki,

      Taking off of what Ray said,  you can also use terminal strips to connect multiple track feeders to so that you only have two wires going to your power source.
       In the pic I am enclosing you will see a terminal strip that has a jumper wire on the right side that is split into two pieces so that the terminal strip is now a positive and negative strip at the same time.
Pretend that the two wires coming into the left side are your track feeders.   One is going to the top half of the strip - the other to the bottom half.   More wires could be brought in the same way,  one wire from one rail going to one half,  the other wire going to the other half of the strip.

[Heave]

I had Power Distribution Boards and the layout divided into 4 blocks... east, west, north and south.

There was one PDB that took bus wires from the command station power and fed other PDB's Each local PDB handled the track power in the area.

Overbuilt? Certainly. But with 14 gauge wires, 15 amp capacity nothing would have any problems.

I used 14 gauge to runs 50 feet max. (Longer than house... oy...) and when I used the PDB's I cut those runs down to maybe... 20 feet max.

The PDB's were never more than about 3 feet away from a smaller gauge feeder... call it.. 18 gauge or so to the track. So one could cover about 6 feet by 6 feet of space fairly easily and staying within thermal limits.

That was just for DCC track power.

The switches had thier own seperate power bus. The Signals as well as anything else on the layout.

Everything was seperated by category and kept by color codes so I could see at a glance which wire fed what.

[rick1127]

OK I will take it that the short answer is YES.  It is as easy as adding a powered rerailer to the dc power pack.  Adn If I want to get exotic then that is where the responces will help.

Thanks

[NarrowMinded]

Yes it is Just that EZ just be sure to have all of each rail going to the same conection.  for example on a circle all inside -negitive and all outside +positive.

NM

[jward]

as an add on to the easy wiring, keep in mind that by adding insulating joiners you can partition your track between the rerailers and wire the insulated rail to a set of on-off switches. in this way, you can turn off power to any of the sections (called blocks) and run more than one train. this is how we wired railroads before dcc, and it is a tried and proven system that has been in use for over 60 years.

[Heave]

A traditional way of keeping wiring straight is to draw a circle of track on a piece of paper.

Put a dot in the middle of your circle. That is your "North"

Inside rail = North rail.

Outside rail = south rail.

Give a color to north and another to south and all will be well.

Once you have north and south on that circle then you will see that clockwise traffic is eastbound and counter = westbound.