Wiring requirements for a DCC railway layout

[IanR]

I am putting together my first layout (DCC) and am at the stage of needing to wire it all together. Most of the forums and other helpful sites are from the UK or USA. They all talk about wire in AWG (American Wire Gauge) or "no of strands/strand thickness (7/0.2)". When I went to my local electrical supplier they didn't have a clue what I was talking about. When I inquired what the RSA  wire standard was, they couldn't help either.

There must be someone out there who can help me. I have figured out what I need in AWG, can someone give me the RSA equivalents? I need the following all in AWG:

Power bus - 14
Track feeders/Droppers - 20
Point motor wiring - 22
Lights (DC/AC) - 24
LEDs - 26
Mimic panel connections - 26
For interest what are 16 & 18 equivalents

A list of standard RSA sizes would help and also suppliers in the general Johannesburg area.

Thanks
Ian 

[LooVille]

Good Morning,

OK, I'm not going to try and give you some standard, as I have just done that works for me.
And my current layout never gave any problems and I do not have any drop in power.
I have about 15m of track about 10 buildings all with LED lights.
Then I have signals and steet lights too. Ant all my point motors is electrical.

My main bus is Twin Flex Black/Red  0.2 100 - OD=1.6x3.2MM
Everything else I used Multistranded M/S 0.2 O=1.4 WHITE 100 - OD 1.4mm
I used red and black from the track to the main bus.
Then I used Orange and green for all the lights.
Point motors I used 5 different colours.

Tis works for me and as I said, I never had any problems.

Regards,
Evert Loo

[capeklr]

Hi Ian,
I like to use 0.5mm and 0.25mm panel flex.
Its multi stranded copper wire and has severed me well.
I normally buy 100m rolls, but that might be a bit to much for your layout.
Don't take any short cut when wiring your layout.
Stick to a colour scheme and lay the wires neatly.
If you need more info just ask.
Regards Jörg.

[Freightcars]

Ian,

I don't think anyone has ever actually set up a local SA Standard for layouts anyway as everyone has their own way of doing things.  Locally most of the electrical stores work on mm² for measurements rather than AWG. See http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/awg-wire-gauge-d_731.html for a comparison of AWG to mm²

I'm also just going to give what I use rather than a standard.
For the main DCC Bus I use 2.5mm² House Wire (also know as General Purpose wire).  Normally I use red and black insulated wire
For feeders I've used both 0.2mm² and 0.5mm² on different layouts.  The smaller size is easier to solder to the track.
For Peco point motors 0.5mm² is good but I've used 0.2mm² as well.
Auxilly DC power bus I normally use 0.5mm² with 0.2mm or less feeding off that as needs be.
Control panels I've generally used 0.2mm.

I try to use a color code and stick to it.

As to suppliers, I normally use East Rand Electrical in Benoni, but any almost any of the electrical wholesalers should have these sizes available.  If you have two or three in a close vicinity shop around a little as prices could vary.

Hope this helps,

Niel

[BigEd]

I went the same as Evert, or pretty close at least.

But, you did ask for the AWG sizes.

http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/awg-to-mm.htm

[IanR]

Thanks to all the prompt responses!! I have a better understanding of what the local market offers.

Comparing what all the respondents use, they are all pretty much the same and match up with what I was wanting to use.

I will go see a couple of the neighbourhood suppliers and see what colours and prices they offer.

Happy trains