Layout power requirements

[mmyers]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to post these questions or not, but I'll give it a shot.  I'm in the process of renovating my 25'x25' basement for a new N scale layout and I have 2 dedicated 20 A circuits available.  At present I am planning to divide power for the room lights between the two circuits: one circuit for the back half and one for the front half of the basement.  Each half will have about 800 Watts of daylight fluorescent lighting , but these circuits will also have to supply train power.  I figure I have an additional ~1000 Watts per circuit available for other needs (with a bit of margin). So my questions are:

1) How much power should I budget for trains?  The layout will be large enough to accommodate roughly 4-6 trains running at once with a typical consist being four 6-axle Kato units pulling a ~12-15' train (25-40 cars) up 2% grades.  I really have no experience with how much juice a single such train might draw, but I sure hope 10 amps is overkill for the whole shebang.

A 5amp DCC booster running at maximum will put out 60 watts on the n scale setting. So even if the system is being loaded to the max you are only pulling .5 amp on the house circuit.

1a) As an aside, what would you recommend as an appropriate sized DCC system for this kind of operation?

I'd use 5 amp boosters and figure two. That spreads the power around.

2) How much power for accessories such as signals (pretty low I imagine) and maybe, in the future, a SurroundTrax type sound system?

Not sure.

3) Any other power hogs I'm not thinking of?

Room lighting is the biggest power drain in any building

4) Do you recommend putting the layout power outlets on a switched circuit or just leave them unswitched?

Switched circuit is nice especially if the boosters are spread around the layout.

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  Now that I have the lighting installed, I can plow ahead with my outlets knowing that layout power will only be 10-20% of my total power draw on these circuits.

Cheers,
Gary

[wm3798]

Don't forget to split your outlets and wire the bottom half of each one to a circuit with a switch...  I regret that every time I'm crawling around turning everything off...

Lee

[cv_acr]

1a) As an aside, what would you recommend as an appropriate sized DCC system for this kind of operation?

I'd use 5 amp boosters and figure two. That spreads the power around.

My HO club has three boosters [NCE] on our layout; until recently we were running with just two. A home layout should not have any power problems on a pair of boosters. We have at least 40 engines on the layout at any time. Not necessarily all running at the same time, but sound units (current fleet average about 1 in 5 engines) do have a certain amount of draw in idle. Figure during an operating session there could be at least two yard switchers and 3-5 trains operating (with consists of 2-4 engines), plus idling engines in staging or engine terminal.

[GaryHinshaw]

Don't forget to split your outlets and wire the bottom half of each one to a circuit with a switch...  I regret that every time I'm crawling around turning everything off...

Bingo.  I spend enough time crawling around looking for dropped parts.

So I'll plan on 2 5A boosters for now, and I assume I can always heavy-up later if necessary.

-gfh

[John]

Don't forget to split your outlets and wire the bottom half of each one to a circuit with a switch...  I regret that every time I'm crawling around turning everything off...

Bingo.  I spend enough time crawling around looking for dropped parts.

So I'll plan on 2 5A boosters for now, and I assume I can always heavy-up later if necessary.

-gfh

Yup .. and don't skimp on the bus wire .. #12 or #14 ..

[GaryHinshaw]

Ah - thanks for reminding me: are we talking about the same 12 gauge Romex I'm using for my lighting, or is there a different definition of gauge for electronics.  Since 5A is 5A, I'm guessing it's the same, and we just want to avoid voltage drop along the line.

-gfh

[John]

I would use stranded .. instead of the house wiring stuff .. easier to work with ..

[wm3798]

Agreed.  I used 12g stranded.  I strip about an inch of insulation at strategic locations to catch feeders.  Suitcase connectors would work, but solder is bulletproof.  I run the black and red strands separately, like old knob and tube wiring.


You can see the bus lines running horizontally at the top and bottom.

I also did my primary wiring when the layout was still out in the garage so I could make all the connections with the frame standing on its side on the work bench.  Much more "ergonomic" than crawling on your back and soldering over your head!

Lee

[cv_acr]

Yup .. and don't skimp on the bus wire .. #12 or #14 ..

At my club we use 14 AWG for the main power buses, 16 for the buses for individual blocks (we use DCC but we're also designing it for CTC and block signals) and 18 or 22 for the actual feeders to the individual rails. We mostly use the "suitcase" tap connectors which has greatly speed up our wiring, and they are quite reliable.