Wiring the Layout

Lessons learned from my Wetterau Food Services Micro Layout helped me greatly with wiring the Herrin Micro.

The foamcore baseboard makes routing the wires a breeze.  I used an old ice pick to poke holes in the support braces to route the wire.  I work carefully, installing the wire buses one at a time.  The first bus is blue.  The second bus will be yellow.  The bus wire is #18 stranded wire.

The use of tap splice, spade, and bullet connectors speeds up wiring.  I also used a terminal strip I had on hand for the two tail tracks that are located on the right side of the main baseboard.  The terminal strip is glued down with CA glue. Jump wires are connected to the terminal strip.   The left hand tail track is one section, so jump wires were not needed like they are on the right side tail tracks.

Installation of the second bus wire (yellow).

Feeder wires were installed with #20 solid strand wire and rail joiners.  I soldered the feed wires to the rail joiners, then installed them while I was laying track (see previous blog post), punching holes into the baseboard with the ice pick and feeding the red wire underneath the baseboard.  After track installation, I used tap splice connectors to connect the feeder wires to the bus wires, being careful to keep the north track feeder attached to the north bus (blue), and the south track feeder with the south wire bus (yellow).  You can also use appropriately colored feed wires that match your bus wire color too.  I didn't due to having several rail joiner/feed wire pieces already on hand. 

The feed wires are connected to the bus wires and bullet connectors are attached to the bus ends.  These will match the tail track wire connections, alternating between male and female connectors to simplify the connections.  Alternating of the male/female bullet connectors means you cannot accidentally cross polarity when connecting the tail tracks to the main baseboard wires.

Up Next:  Painting the track.

Tom

Track Installation

Attaching the track to the baseboard is fairly simple.  I am using a PVA glue and pushpins (map pins) which have worked well for me in the past. The key to laying track is taking your time and making sure you have everything aligned correctly. 

The the placement of the first piece of track is critical.  I carefully align the track ends to the edge of the baseboard. The alignment of this first piece of track is critical for the placement of the tail track sections. I will let this dry for a couple of hours before attaching the next section of track.

The single turnout is added next; however, the turnout will NOT be glued down to the baseboard.  If the turnout ever fails, and it sometimes will do that, I can replace it without damaging the foamcore baseboard.

I will attach the two crossing sections one at a time.

I continue this process for the rest of the baseboard.  Next, I will attach the tail track sections to the baseboard and glue down the track.  I first dry-fit the track and mark where the removable track sections will be located.  You will notice the track sections bridging the baseboard with the tail track sections are NOT glued down.  I have removed enough ties/sleepers in order to slide the rail joiners out of the way so the track sections can be removed.

The other two tail tracks with the connecting track in place.  These track connectors are NOT glued down to the tail track sections.

I allowed all of the glued track to dry for a couple of days.  I double-check all of the track to make sure nothing is loose.  Next, I attached a spring for the Atlas Code 100 ground throw made from a paper clip.  I learned this technique from an old issue of Model Railroader Magazine.  It is a fairly simple technique that has served me well in the past.

Next Step:  Wiring the layout.

Tom