Rewiring the 110 Volt Power to the Garden Railroad - "The Wrath of Grapes" 

A sudden failure of the power mains to the garden railroad and garden shed led to the rewiring of the supply wire from the breaker in the garage to the shed. The line was shorted by the heavy grapes that had attached themselves to the wires pulling against some "not good" installation of the outdoor wiring.
An inspection of the wire revealed not just one place where the wire was suspect, but about a dozen such places! SO a total rethink and redo was in order.
The wire from the power panel the the shop is laid in a conduit to a junction box on the back of the layout. From here it fed three outlet boxes on the back of the benchwork and then back into the conduit to the garden shed where the power runs the online sprinkler timer, battery chargers, lights, and the low voltage to the layout lighting.
The section between the junction boxes was exposed outdoor grade Romex wire stapled to the lattice. Several of the heavy staples were cutting into the cable as were the grape vines, and the weight of the crop of grapes was causing these to cut the insulation. SO we opted to abandon the wire and run new outdoor grade wire under the benchwork and move the outlet boxes to the front of the benchwork.
Pulling the stiff wire through holes drilled every 16 inches while crawling in the dirt grass and rocks under the layout was - - well - - not fun. We have omitted this video as it's too intense for young audiences. But as the light failed on day one we had boxes and wire in place.
Karyn is a wiz at this kind of wiring, so she took over the project and installed all new outlets and wires. Anyone familiar with Karyn's structure models knows she is well-known for her power systems, especially her detailed power meters!
NOW because it's just been that kind of summer, we received a severe weather alert for that afternoon. So we got an early start and had the project buttoned up and the tools all put away a full five minutes before the first lightning strike.
ANYWAY, it looks great, and works great too!
#modelrailroad #diyelectrical #gardenrailroad