Garrett's 2021 Christmas train layout

@Mark Boyce posted:

Looks great!  The older I get, the less I like the floor.

This is your THING Mark..........which is, of course is a good THING.

Dallas, you are so right!!    I spent too much time on my knees crawling around working on electronic equipment.  I even laid on the cold concrete floors and steel grates so I could see what I was doing on equipment mounted 6 inches off the floor.  I hurt my shoulders reaching above my head as well, when I couldn't climb into the cable trough.   When I was 51, I moved into engineering, and I always tried to design equipment to be mounted above the knees but no higher than eye level, just to help the guys out.  (It was kind of like mounting the equipment in the strike zone!!)    Now at age 65, I wish I hadn't had to crawl and kneel so much! 

Sorry to digress, Garrett!  I never want to stop encouraging middle age guys to think like you are in getting off the floor.  All of your spotlights look great!  Excellent layout.

That came out great! I like the presents underneath which act as skirting.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Dallas, you are so right!!    I spent too much time on my knees crawling around working on electronic equipment.  I even laid on the cold concrete floors and steel grates so I could see what I was doing on equipment mounted 6 inches off the floor.  I hurt my shoulders reaching above my head as well, when I couldn't climb into the cable trough.   When I was 51, I moved into engineering, and I always tried to design equipment to be mounted above the knees but no higher than eye level, just to help the guys out.  (It was kind of like mounting the equipment in the strike zone!!)    Now at age 65, I wish I hadn't had to so much! 

Sorry to digress, Garrett!  I never want to stop encouraging middle age guys to think like you are in getting off the floor.  All of your spotlights look great!  Excellent layout.

You are da man Mark.😉

@Mark Boyce posted:

Dallas, you are so right!!    I spent too much time on my knees crawling around working on electronic equipment.  I even laid on the cold concrete floors and steel grates so I could see what I was doing on equipment mounted 6 inches off the floor.  I hurt my shoulders reaching above my head as well, when I couldn't climb into the cable trough.   When I was 51, I moved into engineering, and I always tried to design equipment to be mounted above the knees but no higher than eye level, just to help the guys out.  (It was kind of like mounting the equipment in the strike zone!!)    Now at age 65, I wish I hadn't had to crawl and kneel so much! 

Sorry to digress, Garrett!  I never want to stop encouraging middle age guys to think like you are in getting off the floor.  All of your spotlights look great!  Excellent layout.

discussion of back pain is on target for this project.  my back was KILLING me after painting the backdrop.  sitting in a non-ergonomic chair and hunching over caused me acute lower back pain that lasted for days.  then while that was going on, I was on the tile floor under the layout and wiring the operating accessories.  now I have broad based muscle aches and pains that cause me to wince every time I go over a bump in the road.  It's all wearing off but will definitely try to do things differently if there is a next time, lol

spotlight on the Buy War Bonds Billboard operating accessory

spotlight on the Nutcracker Auto Gateman

spotlight on the Water Tower operating accessory

spotlight on the Bump-n-Go Trolley operating accessory

spotlight on Gabe the Lamplighter operating accessory

and the final operating accessory on the layout- the ice skaters

we had an open house Christmas party last weekend and the operating accessories got quite a workout.  I would say each item was called into action at least 50 times, so all total about 500 activations on the layout in 2 days.  Everyone seemed to have pleasant enjoyment playing with the old school tech

I'm glad the layout was a big hit!!

@Garrett76 posted:

discussion of back pain is on target for this project.  my back was KILLING me after painting the backdrop.  sitting in a non-ergonomic chair and hunching over caused me acute lower back pain that lasted for days.  then while that was going on, I was on the tile floor under the layout and wiring the operating accessories.  now I have broad based muscle aches and pains that cause me to wince every time I go over a bump in the road.  It's all wearing off but will definitely try to do things differently if there is a next time, lol

Garrett , you can be happy at least in knowing how much you have sacrificed for thr hobby .

here's a video tour of the whole setup

Excellent job, Garrett!!  Very festive!

here's a tour around the layout at night

Outstanding work, Garrett!

Great Christmas layout!   Think Im about done with floor Christmas layouts myself.  At 75 its just to much getting up and down.  I admire your ability and getting started early.  
This was last years, simplified from previous year, only one track circle and a back/forth trolley.

I'm working on tear down of the benchwork and thought I would share some info about the underside wiring.

There are two sets of wiring, one for the right side track and one for the operating accessories across both sides.

For the right side track, I fed the Lionel terminal wires through this hole in the foam.  The the wires connected to a piece of Fastrack.

Underneath, the Lionel wires were held fast in the teeth of some alligator clips

The alligator clips were connected to two very long wires which ran the length of the table

At the far left end of the layout, the wires were connected to the Accessory Posts on a Lionel CW-80 transformer.  I used the Accessory Posts for constant voltage out to power the Fastrack.  My Christmas loco is a LionChief+ unit and it runs on constant track power

The loco is on a transformer shelf for easy access and ergonomics

I'm an amateur at wiring and working with electricity.  The takeaway for new hobbyists is that it is very easy to wire a loop of track even from a long distance away.  

As I mentioned in the previous post, there is a wiring set dedicated to the operating accessories.  A basic illustration and explanation is in order.

First, I cut 2 wires the length of the table from left to right.  On the left, they are connected to the track power posts on the same CW-80 transformer.  I wanted to be able to adjust the power to affect the brightness of some of the lights and the speed of motion on some of the accessories.  On the right side, the wires are not connected to anything.  Then, for each accessory, I created a path for electricity to move from the (+) bus wire to a push button switch, then continuing from the switch to one terminal on the operating accessory, then continuing from the other accessory terminal to the final destination of the (-) bus wire.  That was the general thought process.  Each accessory was connected and tested.  Some accessories were that simple.  Others had additional features which required additional wiring.  There are 10 button switches.  I also had two other accessories (arch bridge with lights and billboard with lights) that were connected directly to the bus.  When the transformer power was on, those accessories were lighted.  The bridge lights were a helpful indicator to me if the transformer power was on or off.

to keep the bus wires taut without sagging, I designed in a counterweight system.  At the right side of the table, I added a screw to the underside.  The bus wires passed over the top of the screw with a few inches of excess hanging down.  Then, I added some old screws to a ziplock bag and attached that to the end of the bus wires.  It had the effect of adding some tension to the bus wires and kept them up near the table.  I thought it was a clever idea.

At first glance, it was a mess under there.  Since it's been a few months and I need to clean up the room, my first inclination was to go for speed and just cut it all away and trash it.

Then I mused how easy it would be to setup next year if I reused what was already in place.  So, under the table I went with a roll of blue painter tape and a sharpie.  I labeled every switch and wire.  Each button switch contain a module that pops in and out of place with a 1/4 turn.  I did not have to disconnect any wires from the button switches.  The only wire disconnects were from the operating accessory feeder wires in order to retract the feeder wires through the foam table surface.

In most cases, there were only two wires connecting to each button switch (see # 5).

the wire lengths varied for each operating accessory depending on the position of the accessory on the table and the path the wires had to follow to complete the circuit

The button switches do have the capability to illuminate via an internal LED bulb.  I started to wire some of them for illumination (see # 7) which is why there are additional wires.  My numbering system is 7P (for power) and 7L (for lights).

After disconnecting all operating accessories and push button modules, the wiring is on the floor.  I will locate a decent size plastic bin (the type for storing items under a bed) and attempt to gently coil the length of wiring so as to make it easy to extract for next use.  I have learned to use newspaper and plastic bags to keep the wiring elements physically separated so that they do not tangle.  Fingers crossed for how it works out.  That is all I have to say about the wiring of this project.  Hope it gave you some ideas for your own layout.  It really was easy to do one step at a time.

Garrett, I like your idea to keep wires taunt enough so they don't sag.  My wiring seemed taunt enough when I wired, but some are sagging now.  Since I kept wiring near the front edge, I could snag wires when putting things under the layout.

Your 'wiring harness is well done and will save time when you setup again.