Model Railway Forum

Sorry guys another question.

I’ve bought myself a shiny new soldering iron and want to start on the electrics. The gauge of cable needed is a real minefield, I understand 12v from a recent complicated rewire but nothing this lightweight.

What do I need for track feed and loco rewire?

We’re converting to DCC and I’m going to solder directly to the track. I’m going to convert all our current locos to DCC. Later I will be adding point motors and lighting as well.
My research is taking me to 16/02 for the track wiring/point motors but I can’t work out what you need for the locos.

Any advice greatly received.

For small wire inside locos I strip old computer cables:- mouse, printer, scart etc.

Hi
Many DCC users will solder dropper wires to all sections of their track ensuring that no reliance is placed on the metal rail joiners (Fishplates) to pass power and data rail to rail/
Droppers can be 7/0.2mm equipment wire (Approx 24AWG) where they are kept to no more than approx. 350mm rail to the DCC Bus pair. But if not soldered to every rail or / and are longer than 350mm then increase the dropper wire size to 16/0.2mm (Approx 20AWG).

The DCC bus pair of rail/accessory feed wires size will depend on layout size and the output power (Amps) from the DCC system. Here the minimum wire size I recommend is 32/0.2mm equipment wire (Approz 17AWG) or if a solid wire is to be used on a non-portable layout then 1.5mm2. Having a larger wire size will never hurt.

For loco wiring 7/0.2mm can be used or even wire sold as Decoder wires which is around 30AWG Examples.. https://www.coastaldcc.co.uk/products/e ... oder-wire/ Or as suggested use former mouse or keyboard wire stripped from the outer sheath.

Ahh, I do have a load of good quality NMEA 0183 cable, this should be prefect for the loco's.

Thanks for the cable advice Brian. I'm going to have a read though your pages, I think there could be more to this than meets the eye.