![]() I tore out that Railroad last year during the covid-19 pandemic and have been building a new one and I'm using 18 gauge feeders just because I was given Five 100 foot rolls of the 18 gauge stranded wire by my sister. only trouble I ever had was the Railroad wasn't big enough. I never had any power shorts or power drops and that's running 4 to 6 DCC-Sound equipped steam engines at the same time with lighted cars and 2 DCC sound cars. Well he was right I used about 300 feet more or less of 24 Gauge and followed his instructions attaching them all to my 14 gauge Bus lines. He told me he was an electric engineer and that 24 gauge wire will work fine just follow this rule on wiring lengths and you shouldn't have any problems it worked on my Pike.ġ2 inch or less from Main bus to track rails use one piece of 24 gauge feeder for every 3ft section of track isolating each 3 foot section.Ġver 36 inch from feeder to track to double each wire solder them together to make one fat wire and Isolated section each section.ģ6 inch to 72 inch use 3 pieces of the 24 gauge to every two lengths of flex or about 6 feet and try to keep your track power length to 6 foot or less and you shouldn't have any problems. 20A is getting into welding territory on light metals.Ī few years ago about 6 in fact I attended the "Worlds Greatest Train Show" in Northern Virginia and met a Guy with one of the HO Module Clubs that was on displayed so I went up and asked a guy working on one of the Modules and I asked him the same question. Lol, and my power supply is pushing 20A with 5A inline fuses, "just in case". If anything fails in short-circuit protection and/or a big motor stalls, you have a melt at best, and a fire at worst.ġ8 gauge minimum for up to three feet feeders IMHO, but then I use a 10 gauge bus and 12 or 14 gauge feeders. Wire as light as 24 gauge isn’t usually shown on wire current capacity charts because it’s way too light for most things. Well below what you are going to be running in my view with boosters. ![]() You mentioned this was two wire solid, so single strand, so maximum 3.5 Amps, and you're not really supposed to go above 60%. IEEE says 24 gauge stranded is MAX 2.1 A in confined spaces, and then, per the table in the first response in this thread, that depends on how many strands are involved - more strands, less current. ![]() Most Digitrax power supplies will deliver 3A -5A. Wire is the cheapest part of your layout.
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