Wiring - boring but no juice no train

This is an awful picture underneath the layout, but I wanted to show a couple of things I have learned over the years. The layout is powered by two 2-wire bus runs. One has one black and one white wire to power the turnout motors. The other has one green and one red wire to power the rails for the trains. The train power one is twisted as you can see so that the sound signal is carried along it without interference. There is some physics at work here - knew it once but no more. Anyway, if I want the train the chuff, I need to twist the wires about 3 times a foot. Yes I learned that by not doing it last time.

Each piece of track has a wire lead down through the styrofoam. That is a red lead for the north track, and a green lead for the south track. About every three feet. Critical to maintain the color coding for ease of maintenance and trouble shooting. In the past, I used whatever color I had and it was a nightmare when there was a problem. Each piece of track gets its own leads so there is good power to the locomotive. The metal track does not carry power as efficiently as the bus wire.

Now - in years past I would lay under the train table and solder over my head on every connection. As you can see in this mishmash there are lots of connections. I am a slow learner, but on this layout decided to used suitcase connectors (the squarish red blobs) rather than soldering every connection. What a marvel - no more hot solder dropping on my head or my crotch. As an aside, you never know one dropped until it burns through the fabric (rather quickly) then lands on exactly a part that does not want to be burned. So I splurged and bought a $80 gizmo that closes these suitcase connectors perfectly every time. One side of the connector goes on the bus wire, the end of the connection wire is put in the other. One easy squeeze with the tool and we are done. The other thing I learned is to use wire nuts. Those are the grey and red circular things,. Twist a couple of wired together and twist on the nut and you are done - no tape, no solder. No burns.

One lucky decision - I made the top of the railroad at 43 inches from the floor. This is a great viewing height for me when sitting down. The happy mistake or lucky outcome was that I could sit under the table and not bend my head - just cleared the wood. Sweet.

The switch motors are powered by the black and white wires and those are switched by a double pole double throw toggle switch. Throw it up and the switch opens. Down and it closes.

Finally -- the wires in the photos will be collected and banded together so it will not be nearly as messy as this.

Yes - boring as all get out but now I can finish the track. Already have 5 turnouts on the workbench to bet their track and motors. My goal if the work phone stays quiet is to have all track in and wired by the end on January. Then we will have a "golden spike" ceremony and certainly a blip. At that point the real fun starts with scenery, building, people, cows, and vehicles.