Wiring Made Simple

This course is specifically designed for the modeller who is building or planning a layout and realizes he has to think about how to make the trains run.

Ian Morton aims is to demystify the subject and avoid complication at all costs. We’ve assumed little or no prior knowledge of wiring and other electrical issues – in fact we positively welcome modellers whose knowledge of what goes on beneath the baseboard is limited to connecting two wires to the controller (and perhaps not even that . . .).

Layout wiring is NOT rocket science and we won’t present it as such. However we understand that for many modellers getting things to work reliably is a necessary evil, so we’ll make acquiring the necessary knowledge and hands-on skills as painless a process as possible. The course is slanted towards analogue (DC) control but there is considerable overlap with wiring for Digital Command Control, so its content will be relevant to users of either system.

These are the kind of questions we’re expecting:

• • What should I be thinking about before I start? What are my options?
  • What tools do I need?
  • How do I decide where to put feeds, isolating sections etc?
  • How do I document which wire does what?
  • How do you bridge baseboard joins?
  • What different types of wiring connectors are there?
  • How do you wire points?
  • Section wiring – how do you divide the layout up into power areas?
  • Power requirements
  • Choosing controllers
  • Different types of wire and switches
  • Cab control and how it works
  • Interlocking, common return, track sections, block control
  • Advice on building a control panel
  • Fault finding (the multi-meter is your friend)