Wire Labelling

[cncproadwarrior]

I've heard over and over again how important it is to label your wiring.

1- How do you identify/label your tracks?

2- How do identify/label your bus wires?

3- How do you identify/label your track feeders?

I assume you also use colour codes and keep track of that on a chart?

I want to do it but don't know the best approach.

Bernie

 

[UP2CSX]

Bernie, for tracks, the first thing to do is establish directions on your layout - North South, East, and West. You can then identify tracks by direction. For example, the east main or the south yard lead. Once you get directions straight in your head, it's not hard to ID your tracks.

Bus wires are usually identified by colors. I use black and red for the track feed bus and and green and yellow for my lighting bus. The actual colors aren't important since positive and negative rarely mean anything on a layout but it's good to know which with will feed the outside rail and which wire will feed the inside rail.

I use the same red/black scheme for track feeders and the same yellow green scheme for lighting feeders. I've never found the need to label track feeders. There's one about every three feet and it's simple enough for me to just look under the table for my small layout. If you have a large layout, labeling the feeders by number and having a chart of which track is being fed is a good idea. Radio Shack sells nice wire labels that are self adhesive and the writing surface gets protected by plastic. Lighting feeders are the same issue for me - just look under the layout and see where the wire from a light runs to a bus, The larger the layout, the more important a schematic of what wires feed what lights or set of lights becomes when you find something not working and need to trouble shoot. If you have a really big layout with multiple bus wires running all over the place, some advanced planning on how they will run and dividing the buses into sections will pay big dividends in the long run.

 

[RexHea]

Bernie: I'm not sure where you are wanting to do this: paper, physically. At first I wanted to do a professional wiring job, but then looked into the expense of it all. Wire labeling machines are expensive and individual wire markers aren't worth the effort.

Then I started thinking; why all the hastle when it is obvious where each end of a pair terminates. ONLY if you have multiple pairs at a location, do you need to mark them. Who cares which wires in the group that is running down the middle of the layout. It is only the end that you need to keep clear. You can always trace the pair back by hand, if there is ever a need. If you feel a need to label a pair of wires at a terminal strip for a turnout, detector, etc., you can use paper file folder labels marked and placed around the pair, or just mark the terminal strip 1,2,3,4. The following cable color code is my choice. Using a cable you can connect several things to one terminal strip and have a 6 pair cable going to a central panel to make connections to power, control, etc.

Now if you use a multiple pair cable as I do the color code for a 6 pair tele-communications cable is:
1)Blue/white, 2)Orange/white, 3)Green/white, 4)Brown/white, 5)Slate/white, with the six pair, a spare. Then this goes on for larger cable but instead of a white group (tracer wires) it will change to a different color, i.e. Blue/red, Orange/red, etc. but it is best to stay with 6 pair cable. Larger cable is expensive and cumbersome. Telephone guys will sometimes give you partial boxes of it.

1- How do you identify/label your tracks?
Nothing on the layout. On paper, I use a color code for different physical levels: level 1, level 2, level 3. You can also label as Northbound/Southbound, Eastbound/Westbound. Nothing on the benchwork.

2- How do identify/label your bus wires? Bus wires are obvious;they will be very large in comparison. Just use two different colors; usually Red and Black, Black and white, Red and white.

3- How do you identify/label your track feeders?
No need to on the bench. On paper, you can just put two red marks on the track drawing for that location.

This is probably too much information, but I really don't know what you are after. Hope it helps, though.

 

[cncproadwarrior]

Thanks guys.

I wasn't sure where to start but with your input, I can formulate a methodology that will work for me.

 

[RexHea]

Yeah, that's they way to do it. You are the only one that needs to understand your methodology; just don't be like me and forget what that is. LOL

 

[Blexcroid]

I have done my wiring in a similar manner to N-TraK modules, using the same colour code standards. I then use some zip ties with pads for writing information and document the larger bus lines using them. Finally, each of the wires going to my DCC also are labelled so I can disassemble and reassemble the DCC quickly and not forget what goes where. The zip ties are about $2 for 100.