Busses

I've got 2 buses on the layout.  Greyhound Lines bus by Corgi and a Boston and Maine bus by MTH.  Oddly, the Corgi is to scale but the MTH is too small in my opinion.

Under the layout I have a couple of busses but mostly just a mess of wire that magically, as the mess grew organically through the years, manages to, mostly, get the job done.

That is a really cool bus!  Very nice Joe!

Here are my Bus's and scratch-built bus station modeled after a real greyhound bus station.



Then I have 2 BUSS's under the layout.  One for track wire and one for accessories.

The track BUSS is 10g 4 strand wire.  It independently powers two loops.  I started by cutting away the outer insulation and used suitcase connectors to run feeders to tracks.  What a pain. 



Then I started using BUSS bars every 6 feet or so.  Much easier to install and manage


Same concept with the accessory wire.  I repurpose extension cord wire that might have wear and tear from being outside.  I cut out the bad parts and use the wire for the BUSS.

Here's a pic of my buss wire set up. Not one drop of solder is used to connect anything.  I run a pair of 12 Ga. wires for each loop of track around the front perimeter of the layout.  Track feeder wires are 16 Ga.

On my Atlas O track I use a method to connect the feeders to the track taught to me by the late Kirk Mitchell from JusTrains years ago. I strip a little insulation from the wire and twist the exposed wire tightly.  Then I slide it into the Atlas track joiner and slide the joiner onto the rail.  When the connecting piece of track is connected it locks the wire in place. It's a little tedious at first but once I got the hang of it the process went smoothly. On my last layout when I had to dismantle it because of our move, all the track wiring was still tightly connected to the track after 15 years. I encountered no power or command control signal issues at all on 150' loops.

Once the feeder wires are connected I use an old wire coat hanger to reach under and pull the feeders to the edge of the layout.  From there I can sit in a folding chair and wire all the track wires to the buss wires.  To connect the feeders to the Buss I use Posi-Tap Connectors.  No crimping necessary and they are reusable.  You slip the connector onto the buss and tighten the screw which pierces the insulation into the wire.  Add the feeder wire into the other end and tighten.  That's it.  No crawling under the layout, everything is connected at the front edge of the layout.  It's worked for me so well because it's faster and easier.  The Posi-Taps are available in some hardware and big box stores but in smaller quantities.  I order directly from the website to get the amounts I need.  They also have other products for wiring too if you look around the website.


   

From my last layout with Posi-Taps. (Pardon the fuzzy pictures. 2004 camera technology!)


      

This makes two of (b)us - see earlier in this thread.