Wiring - Rock City Railroad

Wiring is complicated. Atlas makes controls, but they're big, ugly, and confusing. Books on wiring are impossibe to figure out.

We're going to simplify the wiring for you to the bare essentials and save you at least a year and a lot of headaches.

Here's a schematic for wiring the turnouts, including their corresponding crossing lights, and control panel lights.

Use 22 Gauge (not 24 gauge) solid (not stranded) 4 color telephone wire, available in 50 foot rolls at Home Depot for about $20.

I used Peco brand turnouts, turnout swithes, and turnout accessory switches.

I used Kadee (they're the smallest) momentary red and green pushbutton switches.

I used red and green "grain of wheat" bulbs for the control panel. Don't use LEDs because they're a pain in the butt. You need to solder a resister on one end only, which cuts power, and the electricity can only go through one way. A bulb, on the other hand is already 12 - 16 volts and works with the electricity going through either way.

Click for the schematic below for enlargement.

Coming Soon:

a similiar schematic for wiring the blocks and their corresponding control panel lights.