those short little wires

[nickt22]

Often when you get a Lionel or any O scale building,  the lighting is already wired but it ends in a short, stubby wire. How can you extend this wire so it reaches farther to where you want to go. Is there a way to attach a piece of wire that is longer to it without soldering it? Im totally clueless

[Roger Bielen]

Nick, you can use a small wire nut.  If the wire is extremely thin you may have to double it over to get it to stay.  If the wire is a 22 - 24 ga a red crimp connector can be used.  I usually solder on a length of 22 ga wire and cover the splice with shrink tube.

[Demon09]

To connect the wires to a longer piece, you can just get a length of wire the same guage, strip the ends of the new piece to expose the wire, and wrap them around the ends of the other piece, but make sure to use electrical tape to prevent a short on the line. You would do this for both wires, but make sure you don't mix up the wires, because if the positives and negatives are defined on these wires, they can never be crossed or switched.

[adrianspeeder]

Simple crimp connectors offer an easy solution, but for a "proper" connection, I prefer to solder too.  A trick I use all the time is to pull off the plastic of the common crimp connector, crimp it, solder either end, and then some heat shrink tubing to seal the deal.  Overkill? maybe for the tiny wires where the connector isn't needed (just solder and heatshink), but perfect for your main connections to track with the bigger wire.

Here are some helpful pics I took workin on the truck one day.

Splice: http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/6721/52133

Connector: http://www.supermotors.net/vehicles/registry/6721/52136

Adrianspeeder

 

[lionelsoni]

If incandescent lamps are all that's in there, it doesn't matter if you swap the wires.

[jefelectric]

I used to solder additional wire onto the short leads.  Lately I have been using small plug in connectors.   When a lamp burns out you just have to lift the building far enough to unplug it and then you can take it to the bench to do the lamp replacement.  This is especially nice if it is a long reach to the building.

[Joe Hohmann]

If incandescent lamps are all that's in there, it doesn't matter if you swap the wires.

True...proven by the fact that my house has not burned down...yet. Joe