I love the fact this guy literally wrote the book on wiring your model railroad 😊

Great video Larry. I’m looking forward to Wednesday’s and Friday’s. Btw, don’t hesitate to go over 15-20 minutes. I regularly watch other model railway channels (like Chadwick) that run 30-45 minutes in length. Those of us that like your videos won’t get bored. Appreciate your work in putting these together!

Thank you for the instructional video. The last time I ran model trains was just a simple train set with a DC power pack. But now that I'm re-entering the hobby, and reading up on the differences between DC and DCC, I could appreciate all the help I can get.

Larry, thanks for breaking this down. And also, thanks for your book, it is good to have as a reference.

What a good concise Video, many Thanks.

Thank you for your informative video Larry 👍🇬🇧

Great video. Trying to learn all this stuff right now. Hoping to move everything I have to DCC. Ordered my copy of Wiring Your Model Railroad. Looking forward to it!

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

I love watching these videos they're very informative guess I have a long attention span but that's not what my teachers told me, I tend to over engineer all my wiring might explain why I don't have the problems others do but that years of mechanicing experience !!!

Nice change to see an American KZfaq model railroader consider us UK folk. Great series of programmes. I say programmes as these videoes are much more than just video clips.... keep up the great work.

Another great video, Larry! I have your DCC wiring book, I was just looking at it last night in fact. Very well written. I have a layout that measures 19 x 7 feet, double loop connected by a double crossover (made from 4 Atlas #6 turnouts and a 19 degree crossing) which I'm working on installing today. My buses, both the main bus and the accessory buses, are 12 gauge stranded wire. The track feeders are 18 gauge solid wire, and the wires for the Tortoise switch machines are 18 gauge stranded. I'm using terminal block fed by 12 gauge stranded wire to run to provide attachment points for switch machines, building lights, etc. 12 gauge stranded to the terminal blocks, 18 gauge stranded from the blocks to the accessories. DC accessory power is supplied by a converted computer power supply. I have 12V, 5V, and 3V accessory buses. I may be overdoing the wiring a bit, but I'm having fun doing it! Especially since I bought my Whiteside Mfg. reclining mechanics creeper so I can roll around under there! Looking forward to part two!

A little tip for pulling wire up through your layout. Get yourself a guitar string, or simply buy a set of six, or ask a musician for and. One end of a guitar string has a little round "keeper" on it, with a hole in it. Push the "keeper" down through the bored hole, hook the wire into the small hole in the keeper, and pull it through easily. You could even put a drop of solder on the wire/keeper if need be, but that shouldn't be necessary. "Pulling" wires is always easier than "pushing" wires, as Larry has pointed out. Or as comedienne Moms Mably pointed out, "Making love to an old man is like pushing a car up a hill . . . . . with a rope!"

HI! I am so grateful to have found you and this video. I recently acquired a rough built out of a nice track layout for my kids and am trying to figure out how to power the system. It has been over 30 years since my last train table- built with tyco trains- back in the early 80's so i am lost to say the least.

great video as this is what i need right now

Well done with saying about the wire for your country

Outstanding video, thank you! I did order your books to study in depth, as I am no electrical guru.

Just bought "Wiring Projects for your Model Railroad" here at the model train shop in Strasburg, PA! Great, great stuff - can't wait to dig into it further!

On my nscale layout I make my own terminal rail joiners. It make hiding the feeder wires easier. When I used DC I also ran a buss. Nothing like your train slowing down as it gets further away. Started that when is was a kid.

Thanks Larry!

Mr. Larry you passed on some Great Great Tools, Tips, And Brighten my up my Eyes on Track.. There is something I've been wanting to ask the Experts or at least someone that has more Knowledge than I Guess I do on Wiring on my D.M.R.R N scale Layout which is a 4X8 Oval My Track is KATO Unitrack the DCC is on the outer Route only & power by NCE Powercab my Buss Wire is Solid 18 Gauge Bell Wire that is used wiring Door Bells I thought since the Length isn't that long the 18 Gauge would be sufficient for the Distance but with Unitrack and with some of us Modelers that cant use Solder because of where the Layout is set up at we have to Resort to only using KATO'S famously Rail Power Joiners I know Mike Fifer and Mr. Mike has a Wonderful Layout but it's a little bigger than my puddy ole 4X8 uses the KATO Unijoiners in this Situation Larry or Recently I Got my Dad he wanted a Simple HO Engine he wanted sound so I got a Athearn Geniuses GP50 Burlington Northern with Tsunami Sound & some KATO Track he wants a Simple operation Run the Train but he doesn't need anything over the Top I was going to build a shelf Layout the Length would be about 12 ft from one of my Bedroom Walls to Another Wall then about 8ft from one Wall down to Another Wall & then 12 again the last would be about 8 ft again, with KATO Unitrack it's Simple to make up you can Ballast it & do other stuff to kick it up a Knotch but I've had my D.M.R.R since 2014 and & Have not painted it I have not Ballast it I just keep it CLEAN.. that other stuff that your have to do to make it look like a Railroad in my mind is not needed and what you throw on if it is not Done Correctly can do nothing but make big issues.. But what I am interested to know that the Size that I described on this shelf Layout would a Powercab only With the NCE CP6 Along with using the 18 Gauge Bell Wire or would I Need the 14 I'm basically going to set up a Big Rectangle with Unitrack you can Basically put a power Rail Tap every 12 inches of Track or space it out to 3ft and not have to worry about using a Drop of Solder the only Downside maybe to these Power Joiners is that the Wire is Really thin 24 to 26 Gauge but there are allot of Big Model Railroaders that Use the Power Rail Joiners Mr. Roy Smith A Great Model Railroad Guy uses the Rail joiners as he mention he rather not Solder, I follow his Channel as I do Mr. Mike's and they Both again use the Joiners to minimize Soldering which where I live would be Hard but with the 24 to 26 Gauge Wire would a person say in my case have to use more of them to Compesate the Differences in the DCC Voltages.. If you could do an In depth Review on KATO Unitrack as you have on Atlas or Peco that would be Totally Awesome.. Thank You Larry on Reading this and Enjoy Following you and these Great Informative Videos I look up to Model Railroaders like you Mr. Mike Fifer & Roy Smith you Dont need a Money Subscription to help pass on Very Informative Information and to me that Rings in over Someone that needs a Money Subscription to acquire more Patrions.. I will always be tuned in and be a Forever Fan of this Channel.. Thanks Larry for all you do for us in the Hobby.!

I use GLX high temperature stranded automotive wire in various AWG sizes and colors throughout my layout. I use twisted striped wire pairs for DCC (blue/white, white/blue; green/white, white/green; etc...) and solid colors for DC with black for DC ground and light green for Digitrax "Reference Ground." Each power district is assigned a unique color pair, allowing easy tracing in the event of a problem with any of the wiring. I use 12 AWG for the main DCC feeders and 18 AWG for the track power drops. Drops are spaced every 12" to 16" apart and each Peco Electrofrog switch has drops for both outside rails and (of course) the frog itself has a drop. GLX is light weight, very flexible and resists abrasion quite well. Its temperature range is -40°C (-40°F) to 125°C (257°F) and available in a broad range of solid and striped colors. I enjoy your videos and find them very informative, but I find zip cord and romex to be a poor choice compared to GLX wire. Keep up the good work, Bruce

Ohm never forgot his father's advice: "Remember son, with great power comes great current squared times resistance."

Thank you Larry DCC Guy! This answers some of my questions about our club layout where one person insisted on using 18 AWG in spite of all advice to the contrary. The 18 AWG was free. Do you twist the 2 Bus wires to avoid RF interference?

Great video, do you plan to have a video on signal systems. Again great video. Interesting point about nickel silver rail, what’s the best material for rail?

Good day to you... The DCC Guy, Many thanks for all the videos you do, please can you let me know what episode you are talking about the power supply and wiring of that? Thanks again.

Another excellent Video for us amateurs. Question what is better for DCC bus wire stranded or solid wire?

Hi Larry, I recently came across your videos and I'm really enjoying them. I have an issue with track polarity that I believe requires a dcc auto reversing module but I'm confused by the fact that only one part of the track seems to join with reverse polarity ,not in 2 places like the videos I've seen. Would it be possible to send you an email of my track plan to better explain what I mean? Appreciate your time.

For using 22 AWG stranded wire as feeders, drill a hole the size of a drinking straw. Insert the straw in the hole and your wire will slide right through it. Great for extruded foam decks. Once your wire is fed through you can pull the straw.

Thank you for the time and effort you put in to create all these helpful videos for model railroading. I am brand new to this hobby, and learning a lot by watching these videos. Regarding your books, which source nets you, the author, the best profit? Do you get the same if I order direct from Kalmbach Hobby Store versus buying from a location closer to my area? Thank you for your time and assistance.

Very helpful video Larry. Thanks. For a large model railroad in HO (350 feet of main line that runs on two levels parallel to each other (similar to a double deck layout arrangement) is 12AWG "Stranded" 2 conductor (paired) wire OK for the buss? I would rather run the stranded then solid for the buss if it is acceptable with 12AWG. I will run the buss from a central point on the layout. The wire runs will have to be about 75 ft or so in each direction from that central point. Philip

It be nice to show the wiring and attachment to the layout in addition to talking! BTW I use RC servo wires with no problem.

Great advice. Would love to here your thoughts if possible in the next half. I have a HO set up DCC. 2 x 5amp boosters feeding into 6 zones with protection then feeding into my block modules. This goes not on multi core 1.5mm then on each zone run the other side as a ring main one for each zone back to the boosters. All in singe core. all the DCC motive and stationary are group together with loconet and stationary power run in different wiring systems. I am not seeing any issue at present but still building. Have I set myself to fail please?

I always learn from your videos. I do have a question about grounding. I have a DCS100 command station and will be using a DB150 as a booster. What is the best way to ground the DCS100 to the house ground. My power supply is a PS2012E. As always, thank you. Sincerely, Kennedy

And remember that you cannot wire DCC in a ring since DCC is asynchronous and timing is everything. You must wire point to point or star configurations.

Canada wiring Black, white and green for ground.

Hi, Gary. I've watched several of your videos and found them quite helpful. I am in the process of setting up a reverse loop. I've used the digitrax ar1 before and it works fine. What I want to do now is automate my tortoise with my ds64 and bd4. I've seen a video where this is done but it makes no mention of using the ar1. Can you help me? Thanks in advance.

I have NEVER seen a Carolina and Northwestern locomotive. This is what I'm wanting to model at my house as it ran through my town. Where were you able to find it or did you make it yourself?

Actually, we have norms but the color codes are not standardized for the most part, other than ground and neutral.

Just a quick question as most Baldwin diesels use an air control throttle and non-standard MU, was V&O 267 converted to standard MU, or is it a point helper in your latest MR column? Just kidding....

Another tidbit. If using a lot of flex track (which is typical of most large railroads, both HO and N) direct soldering your feeders works great since you can add them where you need them. However another way of adding feeders that is a little bit easier is soldering them to rail joiners then adding them to the layout. This is how I have wired mine in I have soldered up quite a few rail joiners with wire attached (red/white setups) and have at least 1 feeder per a "block". I have plastic insulators (a hold over from the old DC blocked layout) separating out the blocks of track for the eventual addition of signals. Once the track plan is finalized (freelancing it) I will be going back and soldering all of the rail joints together before I ballast, thus making sure a good clean solid signal is always present in every section. The Yards all have a feeder for each lane in a yard, even though they are not insulated, this is just redundancy being built into the system. My Bus is 18g wire and all feeders are 20g bell wire which is perfect for N scale. If you are thinking of converting a DC layout that has block setups to run 2 power packs, do not pull out all of your wiring. What you have already wired is setup perfect for common rail block signal setups for DCC. Meaning your current block setup converts perfectly to DCC with little to no extra wiring needed.

my wireless can take up to 20amps 220 volt

I need to purchase a simple DC power supply for my HO scale railroad to power LED lights and other accessories. Can you help me to choose between these two selections: a 12V 10A 120W DC Power Supply Adapter 100V~240V AC to DC Converter 12 Volt *10 Amp* Transformer or a 12V 5A 60W Power Supply Adapter AC DC Converter 100V~240V to 12 Volt *5 Amp* Transformer. I don't understand the 5Amp versus 10Amp pros and cons and how each choice would play out / impact my use on the layout. MANY THANKS!

Question Larry, why use a separate power supply? Thanks in advance!

Whst dcc books do you recommend

Dose it work for g scale ?

national electrical code !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What if we have a large club layout where one person determined as we started building the layout that one person insisted on using free wire that is only 18 AWG? When I questioned that mis judgement he said the 18 AWG was free and ignored any other advice contrary to his opinion. We now experience random engine failures. He did realize later after wiring the Tortoise switch motors with mainline bus wire that would not work. So he did use 16 AWG. They are working OK so far with remote control. Since I am admittedly DCC challenged I rely on reading instructions and listening to yours & other DCC videos. I have also learned a lot by being a member of several different DCC clubs. So I try to share what I’ve learned but instead of listening this one person has taken control of all construction. He is handicapped in that he has very poor eye sight and is a very poor listener. He always has a quick quip answer to make the person offering advice look like the village idiot. He is a good carpenter, but doesn’t understand good level track work with smooth easements into curves. I’ll stick it out for a while as there are no other large clubs close by. So thank you for your many hours of instruction.

So, I’ve searched google and KZfaq for answers for a while, I run unitrack for n scale. Sometimes my trains run great, other times they stutter, stop and go. It’s rather annoying! A complete piss off, this happens with new engines as well as older (not more than a couple years) they will run flawlessly then the next time they don’t, I cleaned my track last night with the peco rail cleaner (the grey block) and my new as of yesterday loco did the same thing. I have feeders and a bus line around the whole layout, 50 feet of track plus a helix! Before the feeders, I had little to no issues, I talked to some other people and they said feeders should fix everything! I’m at a loss, I have checked ever connection and feeder and everything looks good, no splits, solid joints. Any help would be appreciated, from anyone who’s had a similar issue, thanks!!

Thank you so much.. You inspired me to start my own KZfaq channel. Please take a look.... Chip's Model Railroading