Additional track feeds.

S

Sarah Winfield

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At the moment my layout has just one feed which is about 2' from the controller. I would like to add at least one more.

Do I take this from the controller direct or could I take it from the track? Do I put it at the furthest point away from the controller by running a long wire?

I think I'm answering my own question the more I think about it. However it would be useful to hear members thoughts, please?

Thank you,

SW
 
As it’s such a short distance between the track And controller, it makes no difference what you do,

You could even add a junction/connection box between the controller and track, and it will give you a nice easy point to run a few track connection points

Just attach the wires to whatever is the most convient location

Dan
 
ditto what Dan said, in addition you are not running a lot of current either.

I will caution you though... more feeds to the same piece of track makes finding weak connections much harder.

I tried explaining this before and several people either did not understand or did not want to understand, so I won't explain it here again, it's on my site.

Greg
 
Our layout has three separate loops of track, the longest is about 72 m. We ran that track for quite a while with just a single connection for power without any problem, but now each loop has two connections about half-way around the loop from each other. I attached the jumper wire right where the first one hooked up, being careful about polarity.
 
Really depends on what the second feed is for, if it purely to provide power to the SAME circuit, I would not bother as you will get less voltage drop through the track due to the size (cross section) of the track, however if it to feed a section break you need to take it from a switch fed from the controller.
 
Sarah Winfield said:
At the moment my layout has just one feed which is about 2' from the controller. I would like to add at least one more.

Do I take this from the controller direct or could I take it from the track? Do I put it at the furthest point away from the controller by running a long wire?

I think I'm answering my own question the more I think about it. However it would be useful to hear members thoughts, please?

Thank you,

SW
Click to expand...
Greg Elmassian said:
ditto what Dan said, in addition you are not running a lot of current either.

I will caution you though... more feeds to the same piece of track makes finding weak connections much harder.

I tried explaining this before and several people either did not understand or did not want to understand, so I won't explain it here again, it's on my site.

Greg
Click to expand...
Yes I think we have been here before. But for my Money though what Greg says is sound, on a small layout like yours it cannot hurt and if the second feed is at the other end of the Garden that one Fishplate will probably go unnoticed and un troubling. As was said 2 wires from the Controller and split with a piece of Chocolate Strip to 4 Wires. Remember to ensure that the same feed goes to the outside rail at both ends and ditto with the inside rail.

Returning to something you said yesterday about things stopping, have you thought when this happens to just wiggle the track a little where the train stops or even try to see if you can get the Train moving again by touching each joint (where the stop occured) and bridging the rails with a screwdriver one rail at a time? If it moves you should be able to work out which fishplate is causeing the problems and attend to it.
 
Thank you Jon. That is what I will do.

I'm confused by "chocolate strip"?

And yes, I do "wriggle" the track and generally find the misbehaving rail joint although sometimes the locomotive will have stopped a couple of feet away.

SW
 
Sarah Winfield said:
Thank you Jon. That is what I will do.

I'm confused by "chocolate strip"?

And yes, I do "wriggle" the track and generally find the misbehaving rail joint although sometimes the locomotive will have stopped a couple of feet away.

SW
Click to expand...
Ok Terminal Block if you like.
image.jpg
 
Sarah Winfield said:
Thank you Jon. That is what I will do.

I'm confused by "chocolate strip"?

And yes, I do "wriggle" the track and generally find the misbehaving rail joint although sometimes the locomotive will have stopped a couple of feet away.

SW
Click to expand...
Used to be called a chocolate block, because they would be housed in a brown bakelite case :nod::nod: back in the days when Noah fitted out the ark :mask::mask::mask:
 
A correction to a previous statement..

It is true that a continuous piece of rail would have less resistance than the wire used

BUT!

It is not a continuous piece of rail, but many pieces of rail connected with joiners, where the voltage is lost due to less than perfect connections. It is impossible to not lose a bit of voltage through joiners, even good ones.

My recommendation was to go ahead and put in the second feed.

Greg
 
Sarah Winfield said:
Thank you Jon. That is what I will do.

I'm confused by "chocolate strip"?

And yes, I do "wriggle" the track and generally find the misbehaving rail joint although sometimes the locomotive will have stopped a couple of feet away.

SW
Click to expand...
Asuming that you wiggled the rails that the loco had just passed over to get it working, it sounds very much like the passsing of the loco is causing dislocation of the fishplates enough to cause power loss. This can be reduced by some of the measures that you have been advised about already. Track clips will help to stop the rails moving about and track clamps will keep continuous power.
 
Whilst constructing my railway, despite its length, I thought one track feed would be adequate but that turned out not to be true.

Over time Stockers suggested that more track feeds were necessary and, at last, I realised that what he said was correct. More track feeds were necessary. Once he had completed the building of my new train shed I got to work on the wiring and this was the result:

Control Panel-01.jpg

Decided to go the whole hog and split the line into two power zones with the master station being on the right and the booster on the left.

In reality the wiring is quite simple with the booster being connected to the master station (not) visible. The outputs from the master station (middle wire above) and booster (left wire above) drop down to separate sets of chocolate boxes which in turn link to the individual track feeds (grey household cable) which then disappear under the floor to the various parts of the garden.

The wire dangling to the right of the master station is the feed to the programming track just out of site on the bottom right hand corner of the above pic.

Idea was to keep everything neat and tidy and as simple as possible which I think is what I've done. Most fiddly part was connecting all the wires between the chocolate boxes!!. As it gets cold in the shed over winter when the railway goes into hibernation the power units move indoors.

If I want to run outdoors during the winter I've got a couple of battery-fitted locos to provide motive power. All corners covered.
 
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