Working on the electronics

Norm, Aiden and I were back working on the layout this week.  Norm finished up laying track and I helped Aiden drill holes for feeder wires.

drilling 1/8" hole for feeder wire

Aiden cut wire into 12" lengths for the feeder wires.  We made a mark on the bench where 12" was so that he could stretch the wire and then cut it.  

Measuring off 12" length of wire

cutting it to length

Once we had the wires cut Aiden pushed them through the holes.  He was just the right height to see the holes from the top and the bottom of the layout.

stringing wire from the top

and pushing them up from the bottom.  He also pulled them down from the top once in the hole.

Finally, a little playtime and getting a ground view of the layout!!  Aiden is a character!!

Aiden wires the layout

Just a quick post to say that we've started to wire the layout and Aiden was a big help.  Norm was working on track bed and laying cork so Aiden helped me install some bus wires.

We first measured how much of each bus-wire was needed and cut it too length.  We are using 14 gauge wire for the bus wires.  Norm pitched in and held one end and Aiden used a drill to twist the wires together.  A lot easier than twisting the pairs of wires by hand!!

Aiden used a drill to quickly and easily twist wires together

Once we had a bus pair of wires twisted together, Aiden crawled under the layout (he could almost stand!) and put the wires in the plastic clips that we had screwed to the bottom of the layout.

Aiden could almost stand under the layout!

He was a big help because I would have to have crawled under the layout on my hands and knees!

Putting the wires into plastic clips

We have started to lay track so future posts will focus on the track work and installing feeder wires onto the track sections and connecting them to these bus wires.