Return to Home Page

 

Wiring Projects

 

 

 

 

Wiring a layout as complicated as this one is a long, time cousuming task.

The main console (To be photographed) is made on a shelf located in the center of the layout. The console itself it made of a peice of plywood, (I should have used tempered masonite, but I was cheap, and used the first likely peice of wood I got my hands on) set at a 45 degree angle. The board is painted green. The layout diagram is made of 1/8" x 3/16" balsa strips, cut and glued to the green board and are painted white to provide a nice visual contrast. Holes are drilled for the various switches and indicator lamps that provide control to the layout.

I can and have made many changes to the layout over the years, and I can simply scrape the old track diagram off of the control board, and glue the new layout in place. Old holes are filled with a children's modeling clay and repainted green.

All of the cables controling the lay out terminate here. The back wall of the control console is the facia board for the layout. I have drilled hundreds of 1/16" holes into this facia, and have inserted into these holes bronze-copper rod, (welding rod actually) which is hooked at one end, and bent slightly in the middle, so that when I insert them into the holes they will jam in place. On the layout side of the facia, the various cables are soldered onto these pins. There are four 25 pair (50 conductor) cables that terminate against these pins, and there are another six 12 pair (25 conductor) cables as well. Track power (ten separate blocks) also terminate here, but I am now using 14 gage solid wire for this service.

Sure, I can run a locomotive consist on a pair of 22 gage wires, but what is sacrificed are the realistic slow speeds that serious model builders thrive on. The bigger the conductor, the better slow speeds I am able to achieve.

I keep a record of how the layout is wired, not with a diagram, for this has become too complicated. Instead I just list the cables and their conductors. My book lists each cable, and each conductor. A notation may read: Cable 4, Conductor 22 = Fornost Turnout No. 54.

Here is one of the cables at its far end. Each conductor is soldered to a brad driven into the back of the facia. Other brads (in the row above the cable) are where swithch machines, relays, signals and other "surface features" are wired. It is just a matter of interconnecting all of these items at this location, and then connecting them to the cable.

 

 

For my turnouts, I prefer Tortise Switch Machines. Not that I can always be that fussy, and there are many twin-coil machines in service. I like the Tortise because I can wire it with only one conductor. (Well, ok there is also a bus system under the layout) My main auxiliary power comes from two 12 volt, 5 amp transformers with rectifiers, wired together to provide 12+ / 0 / 12- power, or 24v across the top. The selector switch on the operators console will send either +12vDC or -12vDC to the Tortise machine, which has its other leg connected to the neutral bus. This same conductor also powers the LEDs at the console, and in any or a number of trackside signals. The auxiliary contacts on the Tortise can route track power according to the turnout alignments, or do a host of other things. Is some areas the routing of track power is quite complicated, and an extra bank of relays is used. These are 24vDC 4PDT relays, they are connected to the same control conductor as the Tortise, but the other leg is connected to the opposite 12vDC bus. If the switch is green, there is no voltage across the relay, it the switch is red, then there is 24vDC across the relay and it activates.

 

History

Construction

Tour

Story

Wiring

Timetable

Maps

Scenery

Equipment