Hiding Wires

There are to my knowledge two common ways to hide wires.

• Drop Them: Drill a hole and run them through. This is the best way if you intend to hook them up.
• Burry Them: Cut a hole / trench in your foam, lay the wires in it and cover it up. Can be messy and re-accessing the wire can be a pain, (um, if you can remember where it is).

I've used both. I prefer the first method but in this case it is not always an option. The second method works but as I mentioned has drawbacks.
I came up with a 3rd method.
Hide them in Buildings: Place a small structure over them.
Attached are two pics demonstrating this. These were just to test the concept. Since it is at my yard throat I'll be putting a 'yard office / tower' of some sort.
Wires Showing:


No Wires Visible:
View attachment 245474 View attachment 245475
In this particular case I may burry just a short amount of the wire that is visible and or move the structure back.

Your thoughts?
Ideas? Concepts? Humor?

 

I drill holes and run then under the layout.

Don

 

Well, in a situation like that, where unless your switch controller is wireless, there are still gonna be wires from the building to the controller.

If you are manually throwing the switch, I would cut off the wires. Note that on that switch the wire comes through the baseplate in the middle of the tracks, and enters a tunnel to one side or the other, depending on how you bend the wires. If you want to keep the option of controlling them electrically, you can always re-connect wires inside the switch (leave a small amount of wire with colored insulation attached inside the switch, so you'll know how to wire them back up).

I plan on eventually poking mine through the foam board to the underside, and either stow them there, or connect them to decoder there.

I purchased a contact removal tool for those connectors so I can pull off the connector shell and poke the wires/contacts through to the underside, and reinsert the wires/contacts into the connector shell underneath, using a smaller hole in the layout base. I've posted about the contact removal tool elsewhere. If you can't find it, I'll post again. Just keep one of your switches with the contacts in the connector shell, so you know which color wire goes to which hole in the connector shell when you re-insert them.

 

Sure, if you have the vision / dexterity *and* / or might some day sell it.

 

Yeah, I often have vision problems; I just can't see myself doing something that needs done...

But I can sure point it out for others!

 

Hmm! That does sound familiar this morning.