Colour coded wiring for beginners
Something I learned the hard way is to have a standard colour code for wiring - saves a lot of confusion later on! My particular scheme is: DC or DCC power to tracks: blue / red AC power for lighting (buildings & signals): yellow / brown AC power for points and signals: black / white Signal aspects: green = proceed, red = stop, orange = proceed slowly Red is used twice, but I get round this by using blue to wire the different track sections and so there is only one (fat) red wire to the other rail. I tend to use more heavy duty wire for power. The reason there are two AC circuits (powered by different transformers) is to eliminate light flicker when points or signals are changed. This is only an example - you can use different colours, but it helps to stick to one scheme. Of course manufacturers' wiring colours vary, but the above is not a million miles from some of the common ones. A second tip along with the above is to cut wire exactly to length, lay it in straight lines and have some separation between wires. Then you can easily trace the route and fault-find. Use nails or small screws to change the direction of the wire e.g. through 90º and those plastic spreaders to bring a group of wires together in front of a connector strip. It's a bit like wire transmission routes in the prototype! It takes a bit longer, but is worth it. Hope this helps someone starting out.

To take this thread to the next step,what gauges of wire to use for each purpose? Ie:- AC busbar for points? What is the best size to solder from this to the point motor? The best size to connect from Peco micro switches to the point frog. What size to use for long DC runs,to reduce voltage drop? Thanks in advance, David