Wiring Update…

You may be surprised to see this post as a wiring update, as I had planned to finish the track up to the New Brighton yard. Well, I hit a little speed bump and those plans changed. More on the “speed bump” in later as it deserves it’s own post.

Back to wiring. I pulled the buss wires for all most of the lower level, from New Brighton yard up to the town of Brandon. Through Brandon to the helix I am not sure yet of where the signal sections are and didn’t want to guess until the track is down. Below are a couple of pictures of the bus wires pulled and then hooked up to the terminal blocks. A couple of notes before the photos. First is a picture of the wires pulled and bundled, you should have seen the mess of wires before I got them all zipped tied together. Second, I originally figured I would have 8 signal blocks at most on the lower level, actually I now believe it to be 7, so I installed a terminal block with 8 posts. I forgot that there is a north and south track (14 posts), sidings ( another post) and the reverse loop (3 more posts). So I had to add in the second barrier strip along side the original. The color coding is as follows: black – common, red – north bound, white – south bound and green – sidings.

Buss wires in and awaiting installation to terminal blocks.
Buss wires in and awaiting installation to terminal blocks.
Buss wires terminating at terminal blocks in electrical cabinet.
Buss wires terminating at terminal blocks in electrical cabinet.
Wires pulled for the buss wires, the bundle is for blocks further down the line. The three (white, red and black ) are for this block.
Wires pulled for the buss wires, the bundle is for blocks further down the line. The three (wite, red and black ) are for this block.

After the buss wires were in I started installing the feeder wires. I started by following the tracks around and making a mark by each place one was to be installed. I also put a piece of tape on edge of the upper deck (more on this in a minute) and when I was sure that I had not missed any sections, installed the feeder wires. I drilled the holes and then pulled the wires down through the layout and out to the front edge using a piece of tape to secure them. The tape was a double check to make sure I didn’t miss any of the marks I had made and to hold the wires in place until I soldered them to the buss wires.

Hard to see, the little "V's" mark location of feeder wire locations.
Hard to see, the little “V’s” mark location of feeder wire locations.
The tape strips mark location of feeder wires, waiting for installation. It will all be clear to you soon.
The tape strips mark location of feeder wires, waiting for installation. It will all be clear to you soon.
Feeder wires installed, waiting to be soldered. Tape holds wires in place.
Feeder wires installed, waiting to be soldered. Tape holds wires in place.

Also while I was laying track I had marked the signal block boundaries, which helped when pulling buss wires.

Block end points marked on plywood.
Block end points marked on plywood.

On my last layout I had a rather complicated four digit code for the signal blocks, this time I kept it very simple. I did manage to  get one section of track wired to the buss, but had to call it a night.

First feeder wires soldered to buss wires.
First feeder wires soldered to buss wires.

 

Getting close, until then – Happy Railroading…

 

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