Cowra - Construction, March 2026
One of the front modules on its side and being wired up. Track feed wire droppers can be seen connected up to pairs of tag strips.
Wiring, wiring and more wiring... and some water (but not mixed together).
With most of the trackwork on the two front modules laid and painted, track power wiring was started. This was made easier with the track power feeder wires and the frog power wires already installed on Track Power Sleepers and dropped through holes in the baseboard as part of tracklaying. Each module was turned up on its side to allow easier access to the underside for wiring.
One of the front modules. Track power wire droppers installed as part of tracklaying can be seen on the left hand side.
Tag strips were installed in pairs in multiple locations under each module, positioned near where groups of wire droppers were located. The tags on each strip were bridged by soldering in a length of 1mm2 solid core copper wire along the bottom set of holes. The track power feeder wires were then soldered to the tag strips. Provision has been left for wiring track power to the Tortoise point motors' auxiliary switch contacts to feed power to the points frogs.
A pair of bus wires were run along the underside of each module, connecting up all the tag strips in series along the way.
The underside of one of the front modules which has been partially painted. A pair of tag strips can be seen with track feed wire droppers connected up to them. At the module end is an over-centre clamp and one of ControlIt's custom alignment pins.
Another view of the underside of one of the front modules. The centre line of each of the tracks has been marked with black marker pen to assist with wiring and any future troubleshooting.
The two storage yard modules were placed upside down and the first fit of the 240V AC mains wiring was installed. This will provide a safe and reliable way to power all the layout and the overhead lighting.
Start of the mains wiring to the underside of one of the backyard modules.
However it wasn’t all about wiring. Work was started on a number of structures for the layout. A Casula Hobbies Silvermaz lineside water tank kit was purchased and assembled. The kit was modified and detailed as per the article in Australian Model Railway Magazine (AMRM) issue #299 April 2013. A styrene box was cut and assembled as the basis for the support for the water tank, which will be further detailed to represent a brick base. There will be more updates on this and some of the other structures in the next update.
The Silvermaz water tank kit which has been cut down and modified, sitting on a simple styrene box.