Welcome to the home of the Spindletop Railroad!

Follow along as I try to create a freelanced railroad and build my first HO scale layout. I hope to write a blog that helps others in building layouts, detailing engines, and creating their own railroads while identifying the road bumps to avoid and the fun aspects of model railroading to look forward to!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Feeder Wire Idea

As I am laying the tracks around the layout, I am adding in feeder wires.  These are the narrow gauge wires that run from the rails to the bus lines under the layout.  I have been able to use a lot of leftover pieces of wire but I am burning through it pretty quickly.  I was dreading having to spend the high prices that Radioshack demands, when I had a chance visit to my parents house.  While I was there, I happened across large, rubber-encased line in a junk pile.  I looked at the end of it and saw just a ton of little wires!  I asked my dad what it was and he told me it was a piece of phone cable that had been left behind by the phone company when making hurricane repairs.  I asked if I could have half of the length and he obliged, so I set to work dismantling and removing the wires. 

These are the wires from one little bundle!
 
These are all of the bundles from the cable!


There are tons of tiny wires that work perfectly as feeders!  I am going to sort the wires by color but for now I am using only red and black ones.  There are plenty of other colors available for when I run out of those.  So if you can get your hands on a short section of phone cable like this, I highly recommend you take advantage!

On the layout, trackage has been laid around the curve!  Now I am perfecting my turnouts to have those installed this week.

*EDIT* Random picture of the day: a LONG line of rail train for the work going on at the BNSF intermodal facility.  After a fantastic derail the entry to the facility has been undergoing a re-design and the work has been on going.


Until next time!