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Bus wiring
There's an old trick that people have used for decades to save wire, and with metal prices out of control, this trick is perhaps more important now than it ever was.
Phase all of your transformers so that they are all synchronized, and then you can make one loop per transformer all around the underside of your layout. Make each of these loops a different color, or at the very least label what transformer they go to. Then, make one loop of black wire that all of your transformers can share. I drilled holes in the stringers on the underside of my table when necessary, and held the wire loops in place with wire staples in the corners and anywhere else they seemed to need it.
This black wire goes to the outer rail of all of your track, and to the common post (usually labeled U) on your transformers. Make one run from your transformer's A or B post to one of the colored wires, and then use that wire to connect to the center rail of the appropriate loop of track.
The savings can be significant. Most layouts need at least four power leads, and more is usually better. I've heard two rules: Run a power lead every 6-8 liner feet, or run a power lead after every third track joint. If I just ran wires straight from the transformer to four different pieces of track, I would use about 26 feet of colored wire and 26 feet of black wire (assuming three 8-foot runs and a 2-foot run). Wiring two loops of track this way will require 104 feet of wire. If it turns out that I need more leads than this (which is likely), each lead requires 16 more feet.
With two loops of track and two transformers, I can cover the layout with a single 31-foot run of black wire and two 31-foot runs of colored wire, using a total of 93 feet for the bus and perhaps an additional foot of wire for each track connection.
To get additional savings, you can use lighter gauge wire for those short connections between the bus and the track. I use 16 gauge wire for the bus (12 or 14 gauge would be more appropriate for a larger layout) and 18 gauge wire to connect to the track.
If you only have one loop of track, there's less reason to do bus wiring. If you can get by with only four connections per loop, you only save a little with bus wiring. But odds are you'll need more than four connections per loop, in which case the savings can be significant.
Solderless track connections
I know how to solder but I'm not especially fond of it, and soldering under the table seems like something that an accident-prone individual such as myself shouldn't be doing. Here's how I connect a section of track to my bus.
First I mark the track's position on the table, then I disassemble the track enough to lift that section up. I drill a hole for each wire, using a 1/8-inch drill bit. Then I take an oversized length of black wire and a colored wire (2-4 feet long), crimp a quick-disconnect lug onto the end of each wire, then thread the wires down the hole I just drilled.
I then spread the underside of the rail slightly with a slotted screwdriver and press the lug in place. The black wire goes to an outer rail, and the colored wire goes to the center rail. Then I reassemble the track. The lug fits into the hole in the table.
Then I crawl under the table, trace the wire over to the bus wire I want to connect to, and cut the wire to length, leaving myself a couple of inches of slack. Then I use an electrical tap connector to connect the wire from the track to my bus.
The connection takes about 15 minutes to do and requires just a drill, wire strippers, and a pair of pliers. The lugs and taps are available at hardware stores in the electrical section. The taps are a little bit expensive, but I figure the time they save me is worth it. And if I were to injure myself soldering, I could easily wipe out the savings. Besides all that, if I had to solder all of the connections, I would probably never get around to doing it. Using the connectors, the whole chore takes a couple of hours and the work is much more pleasant than soldering.
The test run
I used a Marx 591 for my first run on my rewired O34 loop. The 591 is a good choice for a couple of reasons. Perhaps most importantly, in the condition it's in, a 591 is worth less than $10. If the worst happens and I have to do a major restoration on the locomotive, it doesn't really have any value to lose. Theoretically I could paint it in a goofy scheme Marx never did and it might even gain value.
It was a good thing I did this, because I didn't realize that the transformer was powered on when I plugged my extension cord into the wall. I must have either bumped up against the throttle at some point, or forgotten to turn the transformer off when I got done phasing it. Predictably, the 591 took off like a rocket. The speed scared me, and I reached for the transformer throttle and threw it to 0. Nothing happened. I looked again and I'd turned off my lights/accessories transformer. Somehow the locomotive took an O34 curve at high speed and stayed on, and before I managed to get my hand on the right transformer, voltage drop took over and slowed the locomotive down.
Second, this one has no reverse unit to trip, so it will tend to ignore small electrical problems. Third, since it's an 0-4-0, it's almost impossible to derail, so it will ignore minor problems in trackwork. While it's true the whole idea of a test run is to find problems, on the early runs you're looking for the really big problems. Get the big problems out of the way, then you can run locomotives with more features (and that tend to be pickier) to locate other problems.
It's a good idea to run as many different locomotives as possible on a loop before you finalize too much. That way if you have clearance issues, you can make adjustments to take care of them. Otherwise you can end up with a loop of track that the majority of the locomotives on your roster can't negotiate. I ended up having to pull a few buildings off the layout because they were too close to the O34 loop. That really smelled, because I'm going for the crowded city neighborhood look, but eventually I can locate or build smaller buildings to put in those spaces.
The kill switch
Every layout needs a kill switch. If you see that a train is picking up a burst of speed and likely to derail, or worse yet, more than one train is in trouble, you can hit the kill switch to immediately cut all power to the layout. This is much better than reaching for the transformer if you get into trouble, because you could inadvertently turn the throttle the wrong way and make matters worse.
Since I use one common wire for all of my transformers, wiring up a kill switch is extremely easy. I have one black wire that runs all around my layout, powering the outer rail of all my track. This wire runs to one transformer, which is then chained to the others. By wiring a 25-cent light switch in between the transformer and that loop of track, I have a kill switch. Flip that switch, and all the trains stop and the lights go out--instantly.
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