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Reply to "Re-wiring Layout"

Arnold, I greatly respect you for even considering rewiring your layout. It is a lot of work that for the most part is not visible. Done right it makes the layout reliable and facilitates repairs, upgrades and additions. The track power is actually fairly simple to install and keep organized. in my experience it is all the accessory power and control wires that seem to end up a tangled mess.

Not mentioned is the possibility of tagging the wires during installation. Color codes help, but do not identify what the wire is powering or controlling. Having tags on the accessory wires has saved me a lot of time and headaches over the years. I eliminated a lot of wiring by using the LCS exclusively for accessory control but even with LCS there are a lot of wires under the layout. In addition to the tags I have lists of all the power feeds with devices and color codes for reference. It is like the old joke about no job being done until the paperwork is completed.

My layout has a separate power cart that parks under the layout since it is not needed during operation. It is on a 12’ coiled tether to allow moving it anywhere in the room without disconnecting anything. I have a smaller layout room than yours. My wife is the official label maker in our family so I just give her a list of all the labels or tags I need.

Here are a couple of pictures that show the labels. By the way, I hate those euro terminal blocks and would never use them again. I would use all barrier strips.

The first picture is the power wiring for the eight power districts leaving the cart. The second picture is the accessory power at the cart.



0F5AA439-A09A-422E-AE2C-E7148A8F69CA279E2624-1663-454D-9317-D10443EAA553A35F8A3C-8601-4E2C-89BD-2778A5A4F6E8

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  • 0F5AA439-A09A-422E-AE2C-E7148A8F69CA
  • 279E2624-1663-454D-9317-D10443EAA553
  • A35F8A3C-8601-4E2C-89BD-2778A5A4F6E8

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