Wiring question

[loco8107]

Hi everyone - being not much of an electronics guy, is there any difference in the wire colors? I use one red and one black colored wire for my power pack to the track- which works fine, but I was just wondering are they all the same or do the different colors have a meaning? I was more curious than anything.

[gnfan]

The color of wire insulation does not affect the wire. The color is only there to make wiring, troubleshooting easier and differentiate function. Image trying to fix an electrical issue in your car if all the wires were the same color.

DavidB

[Gino Damen]

Just choice colours which make sense. Normally black (or brown) and red are used for power. Yellow and blue are commonly used for powering accessories like turnout motors. When also powering the frogs of your turnouts I would use a secondary color like orange or purple. But the only thing which you shouldn´t do is use the same colour for different circuits.

[edwardsutorik]

If I'm running DC, I start with using black and red. Of course, for DC track power, we change polarity. So which side is which doesn't matter. But it DOES matter to keep the wires the "same". So two standard different colors helps.

For plain ole AC power, I start out with using two yellow wires. Yellow, just 'cause.

Wires to frogs would be another color, maybe blue.

Since you should know the KIND of wiring you're going to be doing before you do it, that's a good time to decide the extent of color coding that will help YOU keep track of things.


Ed

[Christian]

This topic makes me cringe, but I'll stay out of it beyond this post.

Do two google searches and you'll find what you need.

1st: NEC wiring color codes
2d: decoder wiring color codes

[riogrande]

I'm using 14 AWG solid house wire for my bus, and it comes with black and white wires. I used 20 AWG solid for my feeders (Lowes Bell Wire) which comes in red and white. I just try to stay consistent (or same as Ed mentioned) with how they are used.