BNSF,
I would use 22 or 24g wire and solder it to the ends of your lighting wire, then slide heat shrink over the junction to insulate it. I prefer to wire lights "in parallel" rather than "in series". I like to control the lights to my buildings and structures individually so that I can change the lighting effect of my layout.
Hope that helps...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I seen someone use a coat hanger and made a loop to hold the wire
more here
also here is a cool way to take the load off you train pack
Desktop Power Supply from a PC
hope this helps
Ken
I like to use LED's in my structures. They don't give out heat and they last a lot longer than bulbs. Like Budliner, I use a discarded PC power supply as the main power source for all my accessory lighting. If you have any broken network cables, strip off the plastic outer covering and you have a huge amount of great fine gauge wire ideal for lighting projects. I also like to have a connector so that I can remove the structures from the layout.
Here is how I solved the problem of getting 4 different light circuits out of a structure. (When installed on the layout the cable came out the bottom.) I then wire each circuit through a single pole single throw switch on my fascia and into the accessory power but that weaves around my layout from the PC power supply. I happen to like lot of switches on the fascia as it give the boys and visiting kids something to do for entertainment.
Running all the lighting for the single structure using this Cat5 network cable offcut makes it neat and tidy and easy to thread through a hole under the layout.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
simon1966 wrote: I like to use LED's in my structures. They don't give out heat and they last a lot longer than bulbs. Like Budliner, I use a discarded PC power supply as the main power source for all my accessory lighting. If you have any broken network cables, strip off the plastic outer covering and you have a huge amount of great fine gauge wire ideal for lighting projects. I also like to have a connector so that I can remove the structures from the layout. Here is how I solved the problem of getting 4 different light circuits out of a structure. (When installed on the layout the cable came out the bottom.) I then wire each circuit through a single pole single throw switch on my fascia and into the accessory power but that weaves around my layout from the PC power supply. I happen to like lot of switches on the fascia as it give the boys and visiting kids something to do for entertainment.Running all the lighting for the single structure using this Cat5 network cable offcut makes it neat and tidy and easy to thread through a hole under the layout.
Simon,
Nice idea. I use cat 5 connecters to go from main control panel to each cluster of switches and signals, but never thought to use them for lights. May I ask, what kind of connecter is that (the female portion)? Very nice idea.
Brian
LOL...easy to find on the net it seems... a simple search for female CAT 5 connectors yields results! Thanks!
P.S. OUCHHHHH not cheap though!
Go to your local Home Depot and you can get a 10-pack of the jacks (male or female) pretty cheap. The female ends come with a little plastic tool for punching down the wires. For the male ends, you do need to buy a crimping tool. Or, you could just buy patch cables with the wires already crimped into a male connector at both ends and just make a female for each end. If you don't have many to do, that is the way to go, but if you will have a lot, the crimping tool will save you some $$ in the long run. You can also get 6-wire cable and jacks if you don't need 8 wires. The 6-wire is generally used for telephone and the 8-wire is for computer networks.
FT
I've been using Fahenstock Clips to connect structure-mounted lighting to my layout. You may remember these from your old Lionel days. Lionel used them a lot. I bring the wires up from below the layout and solder them on to the back of the clips in the holes provided. Then I CA-glue the clips to a pieces of scrap styrene, and attach that with white glue to the foam layout base.
This gives me a permanent pair of clips, and all I have to do is connect the wires from the structure. These happen to be for a Walthers wall-mount light above the door. In this picture, you can also see the bulb for the interior lighting in the building, which is mounted to the layout base.
I tinned the ends of the two black wires going to the clips. It's easy to remove these if I need to take the building off the layout for any reason, but I get a good connection when I put them back.
And, they're cheap. I got a package of 25 for about 4 dollars.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Great ideas everyone. I think I may use the RJ22 or RJ45 connecters, once I see how much a pack of the female connectors cost, since I already have all the supplies (crimpers, wires, lots of the male ends)... Very great ideas, everyone. I am just starting to build my buildings so this is VERY helpful!
Just as a word of caution: Using RJ-11/45 jacks is a great idea unless you have similar jacks/plugs used elsewhere... ethernet, loconet, etc.
Granted it would take a pretty bad bonehead move to plug in a handheld DCC throttle to the wrong jack... but then again....
Dave Loman
My site: The Rusty Spike
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in.... hey, someone's making a penny!"
simon1966 wrote:
Ah this house is also far from DSL central office and/or remote terminal which makes our DSL connection slower as apposed to Comcast which is fast no matter where you live.
http://www.theslowskys.com/home/
claymore1977 wrote: Just as a word of caution: Using RJ-11/45 jacks is a great idea unless you have similar jacks/plugs used elsewhere... ethernet, loconet, etc.Granted it would take a pretty bad bonehead move to plug in a handheld DCC throttle to the wrong jack... but then again....
Hehhehe that is true. I use DIN connectors for my throttles...