Tips for the Layout: Hanging Wire

NMRA Master Model Railroader Gerry Leone talks wiring in this video. If your layout is like most modelers, then there are tons of wires underneath it, making it hard to find the one you are looking for. Gerry’s tips will help you keep things in order.

He mounts inexpensive shower curtain hooks under the layout, which are available at hardware stores, Target, or dollar stores. They are keyhole-shaped, but also come in round shapes, which work very well. To mount them to your layout, use screw eyes, which are again available at hardware stores. They come in many sizes, but small ones work best for this because they will be holding the shower hooks.

Gerry has made an inexpensive tool to screw the screw eyes under the layout using a screwdriver bit and grinding a groove into it that fits around the screw eye. A motorized screwdriver or drill will drill it in easily. An even easier way is to use a piece of bent heavy wire in the electric drill through the eye of the screw eye, and it will slowly screw the screw eye right in. This is an easy and inexpensive way to keep your wire organized.

With this method, it is easy to open the shower curtain hooks and grab out any wire you need to solder or replace. It is also a great idea to label the wires with a label maker every couple of feet so it is always easy to find the specific wire you need around the layout. For more tips for wiring your layout, visit the Model Railroad Academy video archives.