wiring for houses etc.

[talon104]

ok, i found a post about basic layouts etc. and in it the person says to lay one continuous piece of 2 conductor wire to where the houses are going to go and leave a loop where the building will be . Well, since i have No electical skills what so ever. Does this mean to lay one piece but splice off that one , or lay one continuous piece for each house all the way to the power pack? i am going to groove my foam and lay the wire inside the foam and cover it with spackling .i know this seems really lame to ask but, like i said i have no experiance with this kind of stuff and i really dont want to burn down my layout after all this ..LOL
Thanks for the posts and time you spent to read this
C.C.

[colvinbackshop]

Make one complete loop of both wires (+ & -) which you will then be able to tap into. Do it parallel (+ wire from the bulb to the + wire of your supply and the - wire from the bulb to the - wire of your supply), taping into the "feeder" wires for each of your house's bulbs.
The only limiting factors will be how many lights you have and how many amps you can draw from with your power supply, but unless you have MANY lights, or a VERY small power supply, all should be good!

[MisterBeasley]

Why are you running the wires on the surface, in a groove that you have to cover over? It is much easier to run the wire underneath and then poke a hole in the foam for the wires coming down from each building.

[talon104]

ok, so first question , is i can carver a groove into the foam and run the wires then cover them up, if i wanna take the piece and start over i can do so as a whole piece if later i decide to do another one. also , then i dont have to drill through the plywood under the foam ( top of my benchwork) that is why i was think of doing it this way and not the way you suggested.( but it is a option) .
as ,for the wiring ,maybe i'm thick headed? ( just got off work also and it's about 1:30 in the moring, but are you meaning run one wire for each house then( colvin)? that is kinda how i am taking it am i correct?
Thanks for both the replys
C.C.

[chateauricher]

You only need to run one set of wires from your power source to the location where you plan to put the buildings. You can then connect each building's lights to that same wire.

In your first post to this thread, you said someone suggested you "lay one continuous piece of 2 conductor wire to where the houses are going to go and leave a loop where the building will be." I think he meant for you to leave some extra wire so you have some length to play with when it comes time to connect your buildings' lights. Few things are more frustrating than finding your wires are 1" too short.

[talon104]

Thanks you chateauricher that is what i needed to know. it does probably seem simple ,and probably down right ridiculous to others ,that i am being so nieve about this but, i ( like i have mentioned before) have no skills when it comes to electrical stuff. So, i just wanted to make sure , if either i splice everythnig to the main wire or just run a whole bunch of seperate wire running from each building to the power sourse.
with my luck ,i would do something wrong and later on metion it and people would say why didnt i ask .( the only dumb question , is the one not asked ) or so they say!
THanks for your help
C.C.

[tsasala]

Each lamp you use needs power. If you want to control them individually, you need to run separate wires from the power supply through a switch to the lamp. If you want multiple lamps per structure, but control them from the same switch, then run one wire and connect the lamps in parallel.

http://www.cyberrailguru.com/gallery/ig_misc/parallel

I'd recommend running the wires under the layout and up through the foam. Far easier than notching grooves. You will have A LOT of grooves in the long run.

-Tom

[talon104]

thanks tom for the diagram and you opinion. you see the idea behind not running them under the layout by drilling a hole is for one i am considering leaving the foam ( 2 inch piece) just laying on my table. i have it framed off so it is basically sitting in the grooves . that way if later i decide hey, i'm going to do another one ,i have the experiance now etc. i can just take this one out and plop another piece in where this one was if that makes sense?
Thanks again
C.C.

[wjstix]

I have a city area that is elevated above my plywood benchwork 3" by Woodland Scenics foam that I'm working on right now. It's built as one section that I can remove and work on at a workbench and then put back in place.

Rather than putting it on 3" of solid foam, I used 1" foam sheet for the base level where the buildings, streetlights etc. are, and then glued 2" foam risers under that to raise it to 3", but leaving some spaces between the risers. That way, I'm still up 3", but when I wire the buildings and streetlights up, I can run the wiring from each building or streetlight straight down thru the base 1" foam sheet, then connect the wires together below the 1" foam level.

Then I just need to drill one hole in the plywood, feed the two wires from the power pack thru that, and put in a 2-prong mini-connector up to those wires and to the two wires that the lights are connected to. That way, if I need to remove that section, I can just lift it up, unplug it, and take it away!! To me that seems easier than running grooves above or below the foam level.

[talon104]

that is a great idea wjstix .everyone come up with there own great ideas. i havent started with any lights or anything yet. am playing with the idea to even do it. wiring is not my forte, to say the least and i guess not knowing anything about it i am lost on where to begin or how to do it right and not mess something up :) lol . that is why i asked the question run one line the splice all the wire's into one or run different wire from each building to the poer source. .
hey thanks for the reply tho it means alot and your layout sounds great, great idea. i am working with a whole 4x8 sheet of styrofoam tho. already have my track lay'd ,river and pond lay'd out ,just waitnig on some houses to come it to place those and then go from there with the mountains etc.
c.C.

[emdgp92]

I'm currently wiring up my layout for lights right now. It's going to be done like this: a main "power bus" will run the length of the layout. Wherever I want a building, I'm drilling a hole in my layout surface, running the wires down, and then splicing into the power bus with suitcase connectors. (Go here to see a pic: http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=42647) This power bus will get its own power source, probably an older power pack.

[Anonymous]

C.C.

I think everyone is a bit concerned with your idea of laying the wire in covered grooves on the foam board. It's just not a great idea compared to the traditional method of running it under the layout.

Why? For one, after you scenic your layout, how do you add more wires for more houses without tearing up the scenery?

Plus, inevitably you will have a wiring problem. And it's not a matter of if, it's when. It's going to happen. With all your wire buried beneath scenery, how can you figure out what's wrong? And how can you fix it?

Make it easy on yourself, run the wire under the layout and save yourself a lot of frustration later on. It's your layout, of course, but the voices of experience are telling you something.[:)]

Mike Tennent

[talon104]

hey mike, thanks for the reply. This is a good point and a point that has be thought of. Being that this is my first layout i am leaning toward nixing the whole idea of light anyway. i have alot to learn about this and although somethings are fairly easy it seams for me ,others are becomming a problem.
You are absolutely right about the wiring tho. and ,from the distance i hear all of you tellign me this isnt such a great idea (no matter what) so ,the advice has been taken ;dully noted and understood.I think my biggest problem is seeing all of your great layouts and saying to myself darn, i want mine to look like that but, not thinking that hey this is my first a learning experiance if you will; and starting off slow is the name of the game not exspecting too much too fast; and realizing that alot of you have been at this for quite awhile.
Thanks for the great advice and i will surely follow it.
C.C.

[Anonymous]

C.C.,

You don't have to nix the idea of lighting, but you can delay it while you do the basic layout construction. One of the advantages of putting the wiring in underneath is that you can come back anytime and add more.

When you start adding a few buildings, you can play around with adding lights to one of them as an experiment. It would make a nice weekend project. Just plan ahead and don't permanantly attach the buildings when you place them. [;)]

[talon104]

this is true. I guess you can say i'm a little afraid of the whole idea. what to do where to go ,how to go about it. but, yes, this makes sense. I'll have to give it some thought and later decide what to do for sure
Thanks for posting !
Chris( C.C.)

[colvinbackshop]

CC:
Yup...To all the posts regarding a buss under the layout and going slow with your dream!
Once a DC/lighting/accessory buss is installed under the layout, you can always come back and easily add the house lighting, street lighting, turntable, smoke generator, camp-fire, billboard......what ever.
A dear friend and fellow model railroader, Allen Morrell, once said to me; "just run a few extra wires while you are building you benchwork...you just never know when you might need then". He had a very good point.
So far I have a DCC buss, a DC buss and a ?? buss. And, I'm wondering if I should run another set of wire yet....maybe signals, some day!!??!!

[talon104]

hey ,colvinbackshop this as well as all the other post make alot of sense and ,you make a good point . Heck i still have a very,very long time to do what i want or need ,and this gives me time to figure out what i want ,and how to do it. Give's me time to read and research this stuff cause i have no idea about wiring. liek you said buss etc. i have no clue how to do any of it.
Thanks for the reply C.C.

[Tom Bryant_MR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by colvinbackshop

CC:
Yup...To all the posts regarding a buss under the layout and going slow with your dream!
Once a DC/lighting/accessory buss is installed under the layout, you can always come back and easily add the house lighting, street lighting, turntable, smoke generator, camp-fire, billboard......what ever.
A dear friend and fellow model railroader, Allen Morrell, once said to me; "just run a few extra wires while you are building you benchwork...you just never know when you might need then". He had a very good point.
So far I have a DCC buss, a DC buss and a ?? buss. And, I'm wondering if I should run another set of wire yet....maybe signals, some day!!??!!

Excellent point about running the extra wires while putting in the benchwork.
Planning, planning, planning [^]

[MisterBeasley]

I've got more busses than the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority -

DCC Track Power Bus
DCC Control Bus
LED power for subway tunnel lights
Incandescent power for subway station lights
Building Light Bus 1
Building Light Bus 2
Yard Tower lights
And probably more to come...

[cwclark]

an easy way to look at any electrical circuit is to see it as one big circle...one lead goes from the power pack thru a load (like thru one rail, across the locomotive's motor, and out the other rail back to the power pack, or from the power pack, thru one wire to a lighting device and out the other wire and back to the power pack, or thru one wire to a turnout machine's motor and back to the power pack (excluding coil type which is basically the same except it turns constant power off and then gives a quick burst of power to the coil and then off again and back to the power pack)..all circuits work this way.... any control of these circuits is governed by a switch which breaks the flow of current whether it be a toggle switch or even a relay ...also, anytime you see a "ground" symbol in a wiring diagram it's the return wire back to the power pack...chuck

[talon104]

Hey thanks chuck, that is really helpful the way you explained that. I have realized alot getttnig into this .My carpentry skills need improvement definately and ,in doing all this i have alot to learn about other aspects i have neglected to learn over the year but "by god i am going to learn"[;)]
thanks for your post chuck probably look you up later down the road if i have any questino if you or anyone else for that matter doesnt mind .
thanks again
chris