So my benchwork is done and I have started laying the track. You can check out my progress at my blog (link in the signature file at the end of my message).
Since I am using all KATO track, there are plugs at the end of the feeder and turnout tracks that plug into a big master system eventually. any ideas on how to do the wiring? Should I go through the foam and plywood to BELOW layout or should I cut indents in the foam and run it along there to the central point? any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks
Hi,
Definitely go DOWN through the table top. If you run it as shown in the pic, you'll regret it when (not if) you have to troubleshoot a wiring problem or make any track changes. All that wire will be buried beneath scenery.
BTW, the photo seems to show you're using white foam material rather than the blue or pink insulation foam more commonly used. The white stuff is very hard to work with - it's too granular. I suggest trying to work with it right now and see if you can do it, before it's too late to change.
Mike Tennent
Hi Vicky,
I agree with the others in that your feeder wires and turnout wires should go down through the foam and plywood base. You'll find it much easier to trace and work with wiring just sitting under your benchwork rather than in trenches cut in the foam. You can use a knitting needle to push a hole through the foam to the plywood base. Then just drill a 1/4" hole through the wood base and insert a drinking straw to use as a wire guide feeding the wires down through. Just an idea that has worked for me.
Be careful using that white beaded foam, it will break apart too easily when you start to work with it. As was mentioned, pink Owens/Corning at Home Depot or blue Dow at Lowes are extruded styrofoams and are better to take plaster, paints and glues you will use for scenery.
Hope this helps.
Hello All,
Thanks so much for all the feedback. I was thinking along the same lines but wanted an opinion and seems everyone is pretty much on the same page.
I nearly bought the pink stuff but it was only 1" thick and hence I did not end up getting it. Seems inevitable though... is 1" enough? I am not going to have much below grade scenery except maybe a pond AND a turntable... is the 1" foam good enough for that?
thanks
That foam is a no go. It will be a problem.
Try to find pink or blue stuff.
Go straight down the bench top. Much easier than trenching.
I dont know about anyone else but I plan to organize my Kato feeders with power Distribution Blocks; while the switches, are thrown by Digitrax DS-64.
One consideration is the color coding. Those switches arrive with red and black wires. You might want to find another color set for your power bus. You already have blue/white for feeders.
One more tidbit, dont start scenery until all of you Kato unitrack is down, wired and running well.
I dont know about you but Ive seen two inches solid on top of wood or steel benchwork and it looked pretty good. YOu might want to layer-cake the inch layers or go on a journey and find two inches somewhere.
Use the track gauge to pass your switches, I recall two of mine having very slight gauge problems on the frog where the factory insulators were. No biggie in my case, a moment with dremel cleared that up.
Your feeder track section with the blue and white wires has a plate secured by a single screw underneath. Pull that plate and see which side your blue wire goes to. Take a ink pernament marker and mark that underside below the "Blue" rail. Mark the other track the "White" rail.
Keeping track of your "Blue" rail on all of your feeders oriented to the same rail will help.
Allow your switches to "Float" so that they can be gently taken out and replaced again if the thing ever dies on you. I dont know what the life of these switches are but the motors below look pretty robust.
Here in Florida I can only get 3/4 blue foam, so I just glued a double layer to get 1 1/2" thick. You could do that with the 1 inch available to you. I used a product called Nail Power for Foamboard made specifically to attach this type of insulation board together. Comes in a caulking tube at Lowes. I'm sure white glue or Aileens would work as well. It was dry overnight, just weight it with some books or whatever you have around.
My .02 cents.
VickyB wrote: Hello All,Thanks so much for all the feedback. I was thinking along the same lines but wanted an opinion and seems everyone is pretty much on the same page. I nearly bought the pink stuff but it was only 1" thick and hence I did not end up getting it. Seems inevitable though... is 1" enough? I am not going to have much below grade scenery except maybe a pond AND a turntable... is the 1" foam good enough for that?thanks
Yes, stay away from the white stuff. It's okay for bulking up landforms that are going to be covered later though. It's cheap enough to use for something which will never be seen again. Is 1" enough? That depends. If you're not going to have much below grade scenery, it might be okay. However, it should have good support under it. 2" foam will support itself over a considerable span. You can glue two layers together with any kind of water or latex based glue. Solvent based glue will eat the foam. I use cheap latex caulk. Just smear it all over one side, put the two layers together, put some weight on top and leave it overnight.
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
As loathar says, the extruded foam, pink and blue, is manufactured in various thicknesses. You may have to order or search. I used 1" and merely cut shapes and stacked them, which is the whole idea. Use a knife for the initial carving, and then a wire brush to rough in the contours. Finish with a sanding block using 80 grit or thereabouts. You can cover gaps with plaster casting cloth, cheaper at medical supply outlets than at your hobby shop.
My reply here is mainly to suggest to you that the thickness is not really a concern, except that you don't want it so thick that you have to pare much of it to get the topography you desire. On the other hand, thicker stuff as a base layer gives you more room to carve out ditches, gulleys, and so on. Yet, you can still cut shapes of the 1" stuff and stack to form gulleys, so I would only get the 2" stuff if if were the base of a stand-alone smallish layout that I wanted to be stiff enough to keep from sagging, which the 2" foam is.
Use a thin skewer, screwdriver, or even a 3/32" drill bit to make the holes below your tracks for the feeder and turnout wires. I drilled all mine because I wanted clear holes, but poking a hole with an awl will do. It will be hard to poke through any plywood, though, so I just saved myself the time and used a longish thin drill bit to get through both layers in the one application. Two inch foam makes it all the trickier with the thin drill bits since they don't come in lengths longer than about 2.5", and you still need some of that length for the chuck.
Ok, hows this now?
As well some progress pictures posted on my blog. Please do comment on them
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Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.
"Oooh...ahhhh...that's how this all starts...but then there's running...and screaming..."
VickyB wrote: Ok, hows this now?
Everything's "Pretty in Pink". (Molly Ringwald 1986)