The Web Of Death

Spiderman Scher, If there is a ****, it would consist of a 20' by 40' layout 3 feet off the ground with 40 switches, 200 buildings needing lights, enough signals to operate a shortline and Miller Engineering signs everywhere! Your punishment would be to completely wire it, take it all apart and wire it again forever. As you can see, it is not my favorite part of this great hobby of ours.

Eliot if I can do it you can!!! But you need one of these!!! Crawl in comfort!!!

And it has handrails if the paramedics need to assist you out from under that pile

I can't sit on the floor anymore, kills my hips.

I've been thinking about adding solar lighting to my buildings, like from used calculators.  That way all you need to do is wire the building (above tabletop level) and you're done.

nobody, NOBODY, gets to look under my layout.

and i has such plans for neat, organized wiring.

A few years back OGR had a pretty good plan for building an under layout creeper (And no that is not referring the Uncle that no one talks about at parties).  I wish I could remember what issue since I could use it now

Join the club.

Note to self... what not to do:

Don't dump the steamer on the ground

Leave room for a roll-around creeper under the layout

Be neat and organized when wiring the layout

Gilly

Elliot:  By Gosh, your problems are my problems, too.  In addition to the other things that "must" get done, finishing the wiring under the layout is a top priority.  There are some 6 or 7 buildings that still need interior lights.  My engine yard has a set of the Lionel telephone poles with the light fixtures that need wiring up.

The heck of it is that this Tuesday I have a bunch of some 20 or 25 guys coming over to run trains, see trains run, enjoy some refreshments and generally end up in a BS session for a few hours.  Hate to say it but they're gonna hafta enjoy the layout as it is right now, without those lights adding to the "ambiance" of the scene.

And the older I get the more difficult it is for me to get under there and do that wiring properly.  Got just a few more switch motors to wire up, too.   Oh, well!

Paul Fischer

Late yesterday I was scanning the current topics and came across "Who Would Help?" by Bob Severin.  Great topic for our hobby's aging demographics, methinks.

Then I found yours, Elliot.  It seems this issue resonates.  I just wrenched my knee the other day.  As a septuagenarian, it will not heal as fast as in the past.  Getting under the layout is definitely OUT...for how long who knows?

Then I thought of Bob's topic.  Hmmmmm.......

What I need is a Munchkin, a U.T.(not E.T.), the Undertable Troll, the cellar-dweller miniature version of Quasimodo....all highly skilled and efficient in the various and sundry chores of drilling holes, pulling/stripping/soldering/taping/terminating wires, mounting/organizing terminal blocks, preferably with a rubber skull that will harmlessly bounce or ricochet off of sharp corners of crude, splintered wood, a flexible neck able to hold an awkward-backward-upward position for hours on end without accumulating pain, eyesight that needs minimal lighting for optimal work, no fear of 1000-legged buggers that come out of nowhere to crawl over the body, and a lexicon of blue language that would even make General George S. Patton (God rest his soul!) blush (after all, we want some modicum of realism in everything we do, don't we?).

Oh, yes, they'd have to tolerate the 'kisses' of two very affectionate Golden Retrievers while working at their level.

If, as one guy in Bob's thread offered, the Munchkin/Troll/Electromodo drinks beer for wages, so much the better! Munchies for Munchkins available upon request, too.

Any suggestions?

KD

My layout is 40" above the floor and what works for me getting down and under is a simple Harbor Freight 4 wheel moving dolly, with a piece of plywood over the open space and a cushion at the top. I just sit down on it and "cruise under". This hasn't stopped the aches and pains but cut down on my crawling under the table.

This is one approach to under-layout wiring with the Fort Pitt High Railer modular group.

Always living on the edge, eh?

Maybe our Webmaster would join you under there and recall all those good times you two had.

We actually have one of those young, wiry, small-framed layout maintainers, but ours is fired by Mountain Dew rather than beer and could probably make General Patton cover his ears when stuff goes awry. (If you look at the Night at the Train Store thread, he's at the counter in his black Amtrak shirt.) Shipping to MI might be prohibitive, though, and if the Steelers keep playing the way they have so far, you might need extra fireproofing.

Edited to add: Hie thee to a dollar store and buy tap lights and one of those goofy-looking caps with LED lights in the bill (Or a forehead light.) The light looks where you do and you don't have to sprout an extra hand to hold it. The tap lights are for the inevitable power outages when you're in some awkward place and can't see what the heck you're about to run into/roll onto/step on.

--Becky

At the onset, I had purposed to keep all of my wiring neat, orderly, and highly organized. I can not even rationalize by calling my wiring a web. Spiders do a much better job.

I like the crawler idea. Heck, may be good place to get a cat nap under the layout. I also need one of the overhead creepers that extends you out and over the layout to do delicate work with out knocking everything over.

I can fully understand the Unbelieveable Rush to finish a project before the The OGR Folks pull up to do The Video, or a Magazine Story. I am just glad to Have Read Your Story about The Munoz Lines. It's a Fantastic Story and a Fantastic Layout. They did not show us the underside of the layout.....WOW.

I have so enjoyed all of the posts to this sorry thread. I imagine the "seeing is doing" idea would be right up my alley if I ever got to see the underside of a layout done by a wiring genius. MikeCT is the most amazing wiring guru I have ever met and to see his wiring is to hear Eric Clapton pay guitar. Many thanks to Mike for his expertise.

For those of you who have advocated the under the table crawling dolly, well, that would be great if my layout was not built in modular fashion. The "builder" installed cross braces for each module enabling a rolling dolly to go about 18 inches before it would go "bump" into one of those braces. 

I do plan to photograph the underside of the layout and defy anyone to tell me where any of the wires go. 

If you're just trying to trace a wire from point "A" to "B" a Wiring Tracer might help. 

Option #2, Grandchildren. Toss a Happy Meal under the layout. Once they're under there, don't let them come out until the problem is fixed.

Gilly

Elliot 'er I mean Spiderman - You post has caused me to remember that I have some "temporary wiring" that I need to tidy up.  My son does extremely neat wiring like Mike does and I don't want him to see the "web" that his dad has created.

Art

Elliot

I have given up on neatness under the layout. I just recently put LED rope lights under it so I can see better. I also try and keep wires up as high as I can so I don't snatch them while crawling around under the layout. There is no telling how many U clamps are under it.

And, honestly I have hours and hours of acessory wireing to do this winter to even get close to finishing.

NO ONE GETS TO LOOK UNDER THE LAYOUT! Just look at the pretty lights on top of the it.

Larry

Same here.  I sometimes feel like Jungle Jim when I am under there, fighting his way through the vines.  And there have been times, too many to count, when I'm down there and I need to wire into some existing wires and just say, to heck with it and run new wires and cut the old - which only makes the problem worse.  

On the other hand, I plan to keep doing it this way . . . at least maybe.  I am considering something between a mild revision (I will keep doing it) of my layout, or possibly gutting the entire thing and rebuilding entirely - I'm looking for a contractor who would do that for me but . . . If I go that route I would resolve to wire the new layout cleanly next time . . . then very likely get under there to do it and take every short-cut, again . . . 

Lee,

At the end of the day yesterday I was able to get all of the lights and structures to illuminate properly except for one. I thought that was a fairly good job. I plan to carefully examine the one today and see if that can be repaired.

Of course, when I turned on the power to the yard, it was dead. I faced the dreaded "tracking job." After about 30 minutes I actually found the wire that was pulled out and now the yard has power again.

I was not so lucky with my Z stuff crossing gates. There are three or four color coded wires and I pulled and ripped them all apart. Repairs, if possible, will take quite some time. After a while, the wires came alive and started to look like these creatures . . . 

My biggest mistake with the wiring was not pre drilling the holes befor I put the top on.  Drilling overhead in not fun when all the stuff falls on your head.

Well I thought you were dismantling it anyway

I always believe in the one knife -2 prong approach!

The good new is you don't have to find a short in this mess!

And this guy obviously is in a rehab psychiatric home :

Yes, Chris, we are going to dismantle the layout in early 2015, yet I want to be able to say the layout was really "finished," when we host our Open House November 15. I guess there was always an innate desire to light this and light that. The coaling tower had lights and the water tank had lights and the yard was much too dark at night. The CEO said, "Light em' up !"

One of my favorite stories from this disaster is that the Third Rail coaling tower was my only failure in doing the lighting. Today I went down under and cut the wires for the purpose of taking the tower to the workbench to solve the mystery. I knew I would have to restore scenery and re-wire but, darn it, why wouldn't that tower light? I knew my connections were all done properly.

When I got the tower to the workbench I saw the slide switch. 

* * * *, is what is yelled.

I also yelled something that rhymes with trucker.

Albert Einstein Scher

Spence:  Thank you for your post on the Wiring Tracer.  I had no idea that such a gadget existed, let alone find one for such a reasonable price.  Gee, that sound like the cat's meow for my long wiring circuits on my layout.  I'm gonna afta order one and give it a try.  (Does Harbor Freight sell such a gadget, too?)

Paul Fischer

Paul:

Here is a link to a commonly used (Tone and Probe) Most any communications/telephone/data installer will have one of these.  There is a signal generator part and the Probe part used to locate the telephone pair cable in question.   Usually works well. Nine volt battery in the generator and the Probe.  

Telephone/Data/Com is usually point to point, which works well with this type of device.  Model railroad wiring, with a lot of taps off one feed line, tends to confuse the tone system.  Usually an open, or bad splice tends to enhance the probe sound, IMO.   Picture from the Grainger website.  Graybar is another source for communications equipment.