Tired of wiring?

I put on my flashlight cap and get on my little skid roller cart and enjoy the mess..... To me it's fun....

Never wiring is what brings to life the layout above!

Not at that stage yet....but in past layouts......Strict color coding of all wires, 'suitcase' and snap connectors for quick and easy work, neat wire 'tracks' made with holes in braces and hangers made with conduit straps. Keep it documented and all should go well without being boring.

ARGH... I HATE IT!

 

 

 

Nope, I kept it simple and have only 2 wires (3 counting the wire from the BASE1-L) coming from my TIU to my track.  I even took out the LEDs I had going to my downtown   I figure if I can work in the dark, so can my 1/48 townfolk.

I thought wiring was the reason we did layouts.

 

 

There's a buss wire for the track under the layout, but I've tried to keep all the rest of it above the table and minimize point to point wiring with remote networking cards. I have only one four-wire network cable from my control panel to my layout.

J Daddy.....I think that's a photo of me!

Play Jazz or your favorite up beat music.  Keep one track runnable at all times and STOP and Run Trains!

Two words:  Clockwork Trains! 

 

Side benefit:  Never clean the track again.  Ever.

 

Just havin' some fun of course...  no disrespect meant to electric trains...

Eliminate wiring headaches by organizing all the signals.

 

MTH DCS Control System Wiring.

 

All my control circuits are wired to panels which have terminals prewired from the TIUs. These convenience terminal strips are labeled and use color coded wiring.

 

All 40 terminals from both TIUs are wired to these terminals. The AIU commons (COM) are all wired together to DC common. The TIU signals control all my turnouts and blocks through relays. I also have a companion Control Center that has pushbuttons and miniature toggle switches which can be used along with my MTH handheld.

 

 

 

I'm with Bob.  Just two power wires from the 180 brick plus the command wire.  17.7 volts at the power feed.  With 16.8 volts at the distant point 65 feet away.  Using Fastrack.  I do need to wire up the amusement park one of these days.  The poor peeps have been waiting to ride the rides for months and months now!!!

I enjoy the wiring part.  The problem is working under the layout.  As I get older, it is harder to do.  Plus it never fails that as soon as I get under the table and set up to work, I always forget something and have to crawl back out.  Hard on a 62 year old body!!

To me, it is mind over matter. Has to be done whether you like to do it or not. But there are tools that make the job much easier. I agree with Wood, a good creeper is one of the best things you can do for your back. I discovered a splicing device that makes connecting the feeder wires to the trunk lines very easy and painless.

 

I would also break this task up. Do something else on the layout before you go back to the wiring. Hope this helps and by all means, get a CREEPER.

Kerrigan

 

Seems like there are always miles of wiring remaining to do under the layout ... it goes on and on and on ...

 

I'm in the same situation as you are from your post. I hope the responses keep coming. I guess I keep going because of the good end results I expect. At least that's what I'm hoping for. As well as keep having fun doing it and that isn't easy sometimes.

Music, really good music!

My basement layout room has wall to wall carpeting.
Creeper was not working all that well.

I enjoy wiring laying on my back but not crawling around. Or rotating to pick thinks up.
I am 55 and have had back surgery.
And lots of aches and joint pains from years of shop fabrication.

Luckily my 6 year old daughter loves to organize wire connecters and hand them to me one at a time. She also is good at recognizing and handing me the correct tool.
I just need to remember that my wire strippers are the " blue one", my dykes the "red one, screwdriver is the "long one" etc.
she can sit up under it and she is always amazed when we turn on a switch and whatever we just worked on lights up or operates.

And even though my switches are Wired for TMCC control she is the official "switcher".
He (10 years old) is the conductor in charge of everything because it was his idea to have a layout. And my role is to fix, make everything, and run trains when they are in bed.

 

Here is a couple of things I use to help keep organized.

 

Wire holder with 14 AWG on the bottom, 16 and 18 AWG along the middle, and 22 AWG along the top. Works pretty well.

 

Then for organizing crimp connectors, suitcase connectors, wire nuts etc, I use these:

 

 

Rod

Layouts and wiring can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make them. Bigger layouts aren't always better,  if it turns into too much work and not enough fun.

wiring is the easy bit, figuring out what you want your layout to do is the hard bit

I take a break from it, do something else for awhile, and then go back to it another time.

You guys are just too organized.  Amazing!  I'm envious.

I started out with intentions of very neat wiring but.....

 

Except for set up, I wire one device at a time intermittently so it is not so bad.

 

I DO GET a little dizzy and light headed sometimes laying and curled up in odd positions under my layout. I DON'T LIKE that one bit.

 

Next project will be a windmill farm......

The tool box handle can double as a wire rack.

Color enhanced with number tags is another plus.  Atlas 6924 relay boards.

I'm in to the very early start of wiring but one thing I did notice. Once you get under the layout all the way to a wall ... you have to go to the bathroom or need the tool you left on the top!

I have grown to despise the task!!!!

 

Since I have a Christmas layout running under DCS, multiple trains means blocking, with 20 to 30 switches under AIU control, all accessories under AIU control, and the fact that my layout changes every year, it's a dreaded task!

 

I put in place every single wire before I put down the first piece of track because I want to enjoy the build and getting the dreaded task out of the way first is like clearing your dinner plate of lima beans first so you can enjoy the good stuff!

 

- walt

First, wire as much as possible while standing prior to covering the layout grid. Second, use terminal strips or similar components to organize and distribute the wire runs/power. Third, color code by all means---many sources such as automotive and industrial fastener distributers have up to 9 separate colors of stranded or solid copper ranging in gauges from 22-12ga on 50-500 foot rolls. 

 

 

Of course when dismantling the layout, planing is less precise. 

 

 

Save yourself the trouble and build a permanent layout.

In retrospect "pre-wiring" a lot of the layout before laying down subroadbed and track would have been good for major portions of it.  Other parts are getting constructed as add-ons to the main layout, so under the table is the only way to get it done now.

Where do you get all of that colored wire?

Electrical Supply house, Should be stock colors commonly used.   

120/208 volt three phase (4 wire) would see used:

Black, Red, and Blue as the three phase wires (A,B,C), White Neutral, Green Ground.

277/480 volt three phase (4 wire) would see used: 

Brown, Orange and Yellow as the three phase wires (A,B,C). Grey Neutral, Green Ground.

 

Purple, Pink and other off colors  are often used for switching circuit in the same conduit. 

Properly identified as noted above, often, all the voltages listed can be found in the same conduits and junction boxes.  (Use caution )   Mike

Mike pretty much has it.

Most came from a supply house.

Others from various local stores around town.

One I have not been able to find is orange stranded 14 AWG, for some reason.

The orange roll on the center spindle is only 16 AWG.

 

Rod

I just thought of something regarding color coding.

As Mike said white is normally used for neutral in residiential 120/240 VAC wiring.

I decided to use this convention back when I first started the layout wiring.

In retrospect it may not have been the best decision. Most accessories that we deal with use black as neutral or ground. This results in many places where I had to splice white wire to black to extend the wiring. I hate splicing different colors togeher, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

If I was doing it over agian I would likely go with black as common ground/neutral for everything.

 

My other colour conventions:

Violet: +16 VDC for 022 switches and UCS control tracks.

Red:    +12 VDC for modern switches, etc.

Black:  12 VAC for most other building lighting and accessories

Yellow: Track power 1

Brown: Track power 2

Orange:Track power 3

Green:  Track power 4

Blue:    Track power 5

Pink:    Track power 6

Gray:   Signal and control sensing

 

The six track power wires are repeated around the layout as necessary.

 

Rod

Rod

I'd take it a bit further. I have a set of "wiring worksheets" in excel. One spreadsheet for Layout Wiring. Included on it is information similar to your assignments, but includes how it connects between the various components to the control panel and power station I have built.

 

For example, Track Power 1 - BPC01, Pos-01 and a lot of other info including which fuse, etc. I'll try to figure out how to attach an excel worksheet later in the day and attempt to post it.

 

I couldn't have wired the layout without the map, plan and color coding.

You guys............I'm so envious.

 

Dewey's teardown pictures more closely resemble my wiring technique.  Here's a shot of one corner.  The rest is the same, or worse.

 

 

But when I press the rocker on my power strip, I get this.

 

And this.  Everytime.

Johnsgg1;

As they say, as long as it works!

Man, that ZW-L is a monster.

 

Ralph;

I remember you sent me some info on your layout and wiring a couple of years ago. Very detailed plan as I recall.

I would love to see the spreadsheet, being a die-hard Excel guy.

If you have trouble uploading it, maybe just email me a copy? My email is in my profile.

 

Rod

That's the FUN PART of building a LAYOUT.  Look forward to it!

 

FREDSTRAINS

 

P.S.  I was an Circuit Designer and a Electrical Engineer!  LOL