RMC layout article

If you want to read how I built my home layout, Railroad Model Craftsman published my article in the October 2015 issue and it's titled Modeling AT&SF's Surf Line in Germany

If you didn't read it, dig the copy out of your magazine stash or get a back issue from White River Productions.

The article has 11 pages and a detailled track plan. The issue is worth its money because it is loaded with more great articles.

Wiring my staging yard

The staging yard on my Surf Line layout is the last major area of track that still had to be wired.
I use yellow and brown wires for feeding my track. Red and Blue colored wires are for all my AC accessories like street lights and interior lights.

In the above picture you'll see all the essential tools needed for wiring, colored wires, a wire stripper, solder and a soldering iron.

I solder feeder wires to every rail joiner, because these are the weakest points in every trackwork. They might sit very tight at first, but changes in temperature make the rails shrink or enlarge and after a while there´s grime or occidation building up between the rails and the joiners. This causes the trains to stall. because there´s not enough current passing from one track to the other.

I make sure that my feeder wires are long enough so that they reach to the fascia. Then I twist a couple of them together and slip a piece of shrink tube over the wires.

Then I twist a piece of  2.5 mm gauge wire to this and solder the twisted wires together. This is the same wire gauge that I use for my bus wire around the layout.

Then I slip the shrink tube over the solder and heat it with my soldering iron until it shrinks tight around the soldered connection.

I connect the "bundled" wires to my bus line with 3M scotchlock suitcase connectors.

The suitcase connectors are very handy, because I don't have to strip the bus line all around the layout to connect my feeder wires. All my wiring is located behind the fascia board for easy access