Hi Carl, and thank you for your interest. I had a wonderful career on Broadway, touring shows, concerts, industrials, TV, etc. In a nutshell my first Broadway show was A Chorus line (Nice to start out with a huge hit!). Among others I did Brighton Beach Memoirs, Big River, Pirates of Penzance, Les Miz, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. It's a hard life with very long hours and working six nights a week, all weekends and all holidays. But I would not trade it for anything. Power distribution requirement were, and still are, quite heavy. With the wide use of LED's power requirements are less, but designers counter-balance that out by being more creative and adding more and more effects. Cabling is where the most difference is seen these days as a lot of it is now Cat5 or other types of signal cable. A typical conventional lightning instrument would be 750 to 1000 watts. Now the typical LED is a 100 watt LED. So, in the old days, I needed a 20amp circuit for every two lights. That translated into a lot of power distribution equipment we would bring in for any show. 3-pin stage pins were tough, but took a lot of abuse, especially for a touring show where they were constantly plugged and unplugged, packed and unpacked. All three wires connected through a single cover plate. It would not take much for a strand of wire to come loose and cross over to another pin. And remember they are plugged into dimmer circuits that took a large load and quite a workout. So, nothing at all against anyone using stranded wire in model railroading I just prefer solid wire myself. I find it easier with the only soldering I do is the track feeders, which are 20g. I use a combination of suitcase connectors and terminal blocks for the other connections. Thanks again for your interest and happy choo chooing.
Hello
Keith:
Please
tell us more about being a Broadway Electrician. I've always
wondered about the special plugs for all the spots and flood
lights. When I was in Ames Iowa I had a tour of C.J.Stevens
Auditorium, with one of the first SCR lighting controls.
I have
a load of industrial wiring, and they use sleeves to make
their stranded wire easy to insert into connectors. I don't
have the sleeves or the crimp tool to do this at home.
Thanks,
Carl.
On 2/10/2019 10:00 AM, Keith Elrod
wrote:
To each their own. After years of working as a
Broadway electrician, I am not fond of stranded wire. I use a
solid wire on my Layout.
On Sun, Feb 10, 2019, 9:44 AM Mark Cartwright via
Groups.Io <marcdecapri= yahoo.com@groups.io wrote:
I am with
Carl here on stranded wire for layouts.
(but not always for houses or automotive/trailers/airplanes).
====
The problem with stranded wire is it can corrode from inside.
I had a front wiring harness do that on a BMW which I parked
on an off near the Pacific Ocean for 5 years. To replace the
wiring harness cost me $3100; on a car which had a Blue Book
Value of $5k.
====
But I digress....
I too considered Romex 12 Gauge Solid Wire..since I was buying
so much of it for my houses.
However....? I also have some experience rewiring a Sailboat.
So I have also become a fan of Marine (tined) wire for better
conductivity. After my BMW Corroded Wire Experience I may have
run the other way.
=====
> My initial wiring from the DCC Controller to the track or
Buss is Marine Stranded 12 Gauge Color Coded Wire.
From there, I ordered via eBay 200 feet of Blue White 12 Gauge
Stranded Wire and 200 feet of White/Blue stranded wire. That
is Blue with a White Spiral and White with a Blue Spiral. Yes,
I twist it.
For now as drop down leads...I am using a modified Kato System
for my N Gauge Layouts to the 12 gauge wiring below.
HO will be something different.
======
For my layout buildings and street lights...I use 14 gauge
stranded red and 14 gauge stranded black. I do not run this
wire through the same holes or even close by 2 inches to my
Blue/White Spiral Wiring.
======
For some individual projects such as animation, I am for now
using Trailer Wire which is 12 gauge stranded in 4 connected
parallel wires.
This too will change, as I am planning on using a Rainbow of
colors throughout my main layout.
:)) Mark
PS...
There is no Aluminum Wire in my house today. Along with many
other issues which have been corrected.
My WiFi Works. my switches stopped getting hot and catching on
fire etc. Even my LokSound Decoders seem happier and do not
reset.
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