I am in the process of building an N-Scale layout which is mounted on a hollow core door. I want to surface mount all my wiring since I do not want to crawl underneath the layout. Does anyone have experience surface mounting wiring? How do you cover the wires for appearance? I would appreciate any thoughts on this subject.
Surface mounting wiring
- Thread starter ppt1969
- Start date
If you're using foam on top the door frame, you could simply make little thin trenches to carry your wiring around the layout.
If the layout is on a single door, and you have only your track down so far, just flip the door over. I belong to a modular group (Welcome to the HOTRAK website) and I must say this is one of the major benefits to building a layout module-by-module.
Andrew
Andrew
The original half of my layout is on a hollow-core door. I mounted it using hinges on one side and have access to the wiring by swinging the door on the hinges. I ran all the wires to terminal blocks on the fixed table. The only real problem I have with this is that I continued my layout as fixed in place and now where I join the two, I have problems with aligning the tracks as they cross between the two sections. They line up, but when swing open the door, the tracks never seem to go back where they belong because the table can move ever so slightly. I think I have a solution for that though.
Anyway, if you do choose to run your wires underneath, you will have difficulty feeding the wires through the door. I have a solution for that using soda straws.
Anyway, if you do choose to run your wires underneath, you will have difficulty feeding the wires through the door. I have a solution for that using soda straws.
I just re-wired my layout 2 days ago because I got tired of crawling underneath to do wiring.
What I did was mount the terminal blocks to the front of my layout, and used self-adheasive wire clips to run the wire to the front. Now I just have to reach under the layout and grab the wire, and pull it to the front where I can comfortably work in a chiar.
One thing that could be really cool would be to build some high-voltage power lines running across your layout, and have power substations that would bring the wire to the track.
What I did was mount the terminal blocks to the front of my layout, and used self-adheasive wire clips to run the wire to the front. Now I just have to reach under the layout and grab the wire, and pull it to the front where I can comfortably work in a chiar.
One thing that could be really cool would be to build some high-voltage power lines running across your layout, and have power substations that would bring the wire to the track.
There's another thread somewhere that explains why that can't work. Wires that could pass for scale power lines would be too thin to carry enough power to run models.
Perhaps you should mount a fascina on the front of your layout...and have the wiring either in a pull out drawer or on the back of the fascina. Then it would be hidden (except for where the leads attach to the track which have never been a problem in my experience).