I really don’t want to have to trouble shoot electrical gremlins under my layout, who does. So I’ve designed electrical boards to mount, DCC boosters, block detection units, circuit breakers etc.

To make the boards i used A4 6mm MDF sheets from Amazon. Onto these are mounted 63mm butt hinges and 38mm barrel bolts. I threw away the supplied screws and replaced them with 3.5mmX12mm screws. All the ironmongery came from my favourite store iornmongry direct were a pack of 200 of those screws was less than £2.

To one side of the board is fitted a screw terminal block. This is really useful when wiring and prevents cutting feeders or straining wires the wire from the track comes in on one side of the wood and then the wires go from the terminal strip to the DCC components on each board keeping everything neat and tidy.

When the bolt is released the board swings down to the front of the layout at a comfortable height to work at either sitting or standing.

Well thats the prototype done. Now 9 more to get built.