wiring track

[old drag racer]

Hi,i need to know what gauge wire and how often i need to connect to track.I have about 50 foot of track,trans will always run in same direction,so tracks will always be plus or negtive.Thank you

[TCWORLD]

The gauge of wire depends on the combined current draw of locos and accessories which will be running at any one time. I generally stick to 3A lighting cable as it is quite flexible whilst having a current rating much higher than anything ill ever reach.

As for connection to track, it depends on how many sections there are in the track, but id put a feeder every 2-3 foot maybe a few more if using set-track and or DCC to make sure theres no degredation of signals - im sure there are hundreds of oppinions for how many feeders to use, but this is just my 2 pence worth.

[James in FL]

As TC says you will get a lot of opinions on this.
Here is mine;

Note a higher gauge number is smaller wire (diameter) while lower number denotes a larger diameter wire.

For feeder wires nothing smaller than 20 gauge.
I like 18 gauge cut into one foot lengths and soldered to the bus wire, Spaced about every 6 feet.
On my next layout I will solder one feeder to each piece of flex track. Overkill? Yeah, a little bit, but I will no longer rely on rail joiners to carry power from one section to the next.
Current layout is all sectional tracks.

For Bus wires, I like 14 gauge. 16 gauge would work but I have a ton of free 14.

I prefer solid to stranded wire for the simple reason, whenever I strip stranded wire, I always manage to accidently cut off a few strands in the process.

If you want to get technical you can research Ohm's Law to figure it all out.
You don't need an Electrical Engineering degree to enjoy Model Railroading, but a very basic understanding of Ohm's law sure comes in handy, as does a Multimeter.
While using DC, small fluctuations may seem negligible, using DCC that may not be the case. DCC is much less forgiving.

http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/ohm/Q.ohm.intro.html