p51 posted:Adriatic posted:Lee, being a fan of high detail, I might be jumping the gun, but beats hindsight, here's a couple "lesser used" ideas you just might like.
I fully intend on putting (painted) bird poop on roofs and high places on the layout when I'm further along with my campaign to flood the layout with small details.
Like I said, me jumping the gun is a great possibility with you and details 
("He called the $h*^ poop", lol 
)
A bird of prey, seldom has buddies, and is good reason for the absence of most other birds....and I've always been very fond of them 
Lags, & rungs also come in varieties. Line men used to carry extras to screw into the low section of the poles and removed them when done. There were through bolts too. Then there were also some steps, that slipped over the head of a large nail, or bolt head, sank to leave about 1/8" gap. Removable when the job was done, the nail/bolt was left in place. Poles also have date ID, treatment chemical ID (more on modern), and might have had wood type ID. From embossed nail heads (date nail) to "dog tags". Support wires that have the yellow plastic covers today? That cover would have been made of wood then. I remember getting some evil splinters from a very old one in Mich's U.P. (no its not always a RR 
) Ice breakers of wood too (twists the cable in the wind to break off ice build up).
Samuel Morse started it all after some failures with underground telegraph wires.
Carey, You may like a trick I used in detailing my vintage VW's wiring, and later used it elsewhere.
For an example, take a piece of scrap wire, and wrap a single, gap-free layer, onto a pencil, pen, Philips screwdriver, etc. Carefully remove the coil of wire you've made from your "stick", grab each loose end, and stretch it out sightly for a fancy, curly, look. Your done.
It can be done anywhere the wire seems "unsightly", but also cannot be hidden. Even just loose ends feeding a lock-on or Whistle house. It's new found springiness, also helps contain loose lengths on the underside, that might otherwise droop into sight. Extra wire lengths also yield easy hook up, or "knock on deep, rich, wood", repair access.
Spread, its not a good electrical coil, no worries. Compact, it is a coil, but not strong. I've never had anything react to one, including some pretty sensitive digital equipment. I wouldn't let the coils become tangled though. I never checked, or thought too hard about it, but off-hand it seems they could, just maybe ,"cancel each other out", at least slightly, if intertwined . Plus it would look "sloppy" 
