What to use,barrier strips or grounding bar?

We used both. We already had the MTH terminals so we used those. We needed a few more but used the ground bars instead. Picked them up at Home Depot or Lowes for a fraction of the cost of the MTH terminals. We kept the commons separate just for organization reasons. We use 4 Bricks, plus both handles of the Z4000 for 6 different power districts on the layout. There's a lot more to this wiring panel now, but you get the idea.

Barrier strips are not designed for power distribution, and are less than ideal for that purpose. You have to add shorting bars, which are not always easy to find. The MTH terminal strips mentioned by Laidoffsick are a better solution, albeit more expensive. Miller Engineering sells a smaller version if you don't need 12 or 24 terminal pairs like on the MTH, and there are also cheaper, similar products available on eBay and from electronics distributors. One handy feature of the MTH strips is that they are set up to take input from banana plugs. I use the MTH strips for track power and some cheapies I got off eBay for accessories. 

Southwest  Hiawatha,i am not sure i understand what you are saying,you say that barrier strips are not made for that purpose,yet aren't the mth terminal strips made from barrier strips?, it looks like it is to me,they seem to be one in the same product,just asking can you clarifier this for me.

Different folks use different terminology.....

Don't use these for power distribution:

My post was simply explaining the difference/confusion for Gerald from from his original post. If you're 4 pairs of feeders to each loop then using a ground bar is just easier than having to jump several terminals together on those terminal strips. Not to mention it's not easy to find those jumpers, unless you just make your own.

I shouldn't have said "don't"..... use whatever if you want. Some methods are just easier for multiple feeds...that's all!  

The 180 watt brick only put outs 10 amps, so whether or not the terminal strip can handle 15 amps doesn't matter.

We have 6-12 pairs of feeders for each loop, so those terminal strips just didn't make sense to me. To many jumpers from terminal to terminal. The MTH and ground bars just made it so much simpler for me.

I'm using the MTH type terminal blocks for power distribution and the Euro style terminal strips for most everything else. These require no spade/fork/lug connectors, no crimping and hold the wires well. The Euro style are also fairly in expensive and used to be available at Radio Shack and even less online. The Euro term strips are available for different wire sizes and amp ratings.

Every time I have been to RS lately they seem to have less and less electronic stuff. I'm not sure they are still stocking the term strips in store and if they do they usually have no more than 2 of anything electronics wise.

I can see that everyone has there own way of doing things the good thing about this forum is you quickly learn that there is more than one way to do things,i have used the power distribution block from miller signs,& i have also used the euro style terminal  strips,& i also have used jumpers for the barrier strips so since i have some barrier strips i will use them just as Dewey Trogdon has shown in his response. Thanks to all who have responded.

The MTH and Miller blocks could be the same product, extremely similar anyway.

One of several ways to wire a layout:

This RR features either two rail  Crest DC or MTH DCS power.

Panels A through J plus feeders and transition track circuits.

Note color coding and numerical bands for trouble shooting.

All circuits feed isolated blocks with two wires, one s.p.s.t. toggle switch for each block.  f.p.d.t. relay for each diamond.

Accessory and track commons combined there are (3) neutral bars in use.

I've been using the 8 position  barrier strips from Radio Shack with jumper plates with no problems. I have one split between common and hot with eight feeds to our under construction Polar Express display. I also use them on our 8 x 5 year round with 9 individual loops, each with two power feeds. I do like the power distribution boards from Miller Engineering and find them much easier to use. But for convenience in acquiring them and adaptability in splitting circuits I think the barrier strips have their place.

All of the aforementioned connecting blocks work just fine: grounding bars, barrier strips, Euro strips, terminal strips---personal taste applies.

Or, as we often did in the old days when money was not available, run a row of screws with a washer or two on each screw into the grid joists or underside of the benchwork and make a connecting strip for organizing and distributing the wire runs. Did it many times on a Club HO layout as well as on my 1960s home O-gauge 4x8 layout.

On Forum threads we [me] tend to develop our "rivet counter" mentality when debating use of favorite methods/products. Lot of ways to "skin a cat" in the O-gauge business.    [please push the cat lover mute button]

Radio Shack does seem to focus much more on consumer electronics these days and has a far smaller inventory of parts than they did ten years ago.

Tom  Tee, Wow,i am impressed with your work,it has given me something to think about as far as putting a label on the wires,where did you get those small numbers & letters? Thanks for postingthe pictures.

I have been looking for an alternative to purchasing terminal strips to wire up my layout.  I came across

Allied Electronics, Inc.
7151 Jack Newell Blvd. S.
Fort Worth, Texas 76118 U.S.A.
+1 (866) 433-5722

http://www.alliedelec.com

They sell a terminal connector (part number CMB4) that you can connect together and make strips as long as you like or you can purchase pre-made strips in any length.  Add the internal jumper and you have a terminal block that you can connect all your hot wires too.  In this configuration that one feeder from the source and 19 to the tracks.  The block is about 1” X 1” X  3”.  Cost was less than $9.00 each.

Jim Miller

If you can come up with a wire color code and stick to it, makes it a lot easier to tell what wire is what. Numbering or some sort of ID is also highly useful. All that helps with trouble shooting later on too.

Home Depot or Lowes has the wire number booklets with the small numbers. You can also get them you can write on with a marker so you can use your own numbers/codes if you want. 

I think the best product to use (of all the choices stated thus far) is the one that is most easily obtained by the original poster. They will all work equally well, though the barrier strips will require the shorting bars or a bunch of little jumper wires.

If you opt to go with the ground bus kit, a lot of the larger (longer/ more terminations)  will have more than just two mounting holes. You could conceivably buy a 42 point bar and cut it half (a hacksaw would do the trick) If it doesn't have the extra mounting holes to mount both pieces, remove two screws and drill through the bar to make them. Since there typically isn't much of a price difference for the different sized bars, this could save a few bucks.

As for labeling the wires, I use four different colors of electrical tape and a black Sharpie to identify each cable. I use red for one loop of track, orange for the other, white for accessories and yellow for lights. I use red or white wire for the hot and black wire for the return. A few items may have an oddball color in there, but that's my wiring in a nutshell. Almost all the wiring is with 2 conductor cable.

I'll guess there's as many ways to wire a layout as there are track plans.

Hope this helps,

J White

Gerald, Thank you for the kind words.

Box stores and electrical supply houses.  0 or 1 - 45, 46-  90, A-Z plus others.  Electrical supply houses are best for shrink tubing also.  4' lengths $2-$3.

I also use eight different color tapes to differentiate similar runs.