BUS LINES -How many needed, please help

[jtomai]

My question is this: On one leg of my layout, nearly 20 feet long and consists of 6-8 lanes of parallel track (4 lanes of track account for 2 main lines -north and south bound each, and the other lanes for passing lanes and spurs) I run 12 gauge BUS which I twist 3 times per foot and use 18 gauge feeders. I solder all my feeders and use tap splices from the bus.
(A power district will be at the top of this run in the future as my layout expands, but for now it is spliced into the main bus run with wire twist connectors)

!!!!!! ---> For a 20 foot run of 6-7 parallel track, should I use a single bus line or branch it off and have 2 connected bus lines split between the 7-8 tracks? How many parallel tracks before its worth running a spur off of the main bus line?

In general, how "deep" or how many parallel tracks can a single 12Ga Bus w/ 18Ga feeders handle? I run a NCE DCC 5amp System.

Thanks,

John

[Selector]

Given that you are highly unlikely to have more than 4 amps of power needed in this area, I would stick with the one bus. Feed all you want, but you are unlikely to have as many as 6 hard-working locomotives with sound in the setup you describe.

BTW, I think your three wraps per foot is overkill. We don't do this with parallel rails just above the bus, and the decoders get the signal just fine all over your properly fed track system. Why all those wraps down below?

[UPBigBoy]

Originally Posted by Selector

'CLIP'

BTW, I think your three wraps per foot is overkill. We don't do this with parallel rails just above the bus, and the decoders get the signal just fine all over your properly fed track system. Why all those wraps down below?

I think he's worrying about IF frequency problems.

[jtomai]

NCE in their manual recommended 3 wraps per foot on the bus, where the BUS is over 30 feet long. My BUS is nearly 90 feet long from where the DCC system connects, to the 'end of the line'. 90 feet. And as It would be impossible to go back down their and twist everything after I was done (laying track, splicing feeders...) I figured better be safe than sorry. So as I installed the bus from the beginning I followed a policy of twisting.

I mean, what harm can it do? It insulates the signal too no?

[D&J RailRoad]

Just a lot of work twisting the wire. Anyway, unless you are going to have signals for each track, you should be able to use one buss for all the parallel track. You might want to think about that 90feet of buss though. There will be significant line loss.

[jtomai]

Line Loss. -Well a booster should solve that right? Figure put a booster in at 45 feet of Bus?

[D&J RailRoad]

Yep, that will work.