Layout Joists and Track Bus Cabling – January to March 2011

Some 17mm ply was cut to length, and placed across the L-girders at approximately 450mm intervals.  Both decks and the peninsula took over 140 joists, each screwed from underneath at either end through the L-girder.

Once this was complete, then the main track bus wires were run around both levels, the peninsula, and the helix, all from a central point. All bus wiring was done in 2.5mm² building wire (approx 12-13 AWG). Red and black were chosen as the primary colours for the main bus.

A second bus was also run as an accessory bus, twisted and terminated as above, using 2.5mm² blue and white wires to distinguish it from the track bus.

Taking the sage advice of several DCC gurus on the internet, each of the 6 bus branches was twisted about 3 turns per foot, and terminated on a terminal strip using a 100 ohm 1 watt resistor and a 0.1 microfarad ceramic capacitor. Jaycar was the shop of choice, and bulk orders attracted slight discounts for quantity.