Terminal Distribution Strip

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Acme should have what you want:

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Railroad Books, Toys, and Trains: to 1,200 sites:

Radio Shack also sells a part called a barrier jumper. See:

It is inserted into one side of the barrier strips, and jumpers as many terminal pairs together as you need by cutting the jumper strip to the needed length. You can attach your feed under one terminal, and the loads under as many others as you need. You can attach a wire between the screws and the jumper, as well as on the terminal screws opposite the jumper, so three barrier strip terminal pairs could serve one incoming wire and five distribution feeders. Or for super neatness, put all the distribution feeders on the side opposite the jumper strip, but this uses more barrier strip terminal pairs. Geezer

with at

Roundhouse (5

layout. Radio

distribution.

Radio Shack also carries bus bars that can be used to tie the terminals of a barrier strip together, turning it into a distribution strip. The bus bars come sized for the 8 terminal barrier strip, but it's easy to shorten for 2, 4, and 6 terminal strips with a pair of side cutters.

The catalog number is 274-650, and so far they haven't dropped it from the few parts they still carry.

Len

Not knowing where you live, you might try looking in the phonebook for electronic part stores. Here in San Antonio there a couple of stores besides Radio Shack. I have used these stores to get wire, terminal strips, dioes and other electronic parts needed to help build a friend's HO layout. In fact I found these stores not only alot cheaper but with a bigger selection than Radio Shack.

Fred Ellis

Slightly off your original question, let me recommend that you consider the white nylon "European"-type terminal strips offered by Radio Shack (and others) instead of the traditional "US"-type black bakelite barrier terminal strip. Having just added signals to an old portable layout where I had used barrier strips, and a new layout where I used the Euro strips, the latter have many advantages: o The nylon is slightly flexible and tough, so is less likely to break, where the bakelite is quite brittle and twisting a misplaced screwdriver blade can break off parts of the barriers. o The ring around the hole with the screw guides your screwdriver and keeps it centered on the screw, which is a huge benefit when working on your back up under a layout where the lighting is not always good. o Placing a short, straight end of a wire into the hollow tube is much easier than forming a hook on the end of the wire and getting it around the screw between the barriers. o Adding a second wire to a terminal tube is much easier than adding a second wire around a screw while not displacing the first wire. I am not aware of prefab jumper strips for the Euro style terminal strips to meet your needs for fanning out a circuit, but it is easy to make a series of "U"s from short scrap pieces of wire to use as jumpers. Geezer

in article snipped-for-privacy@xstic.net, Fred Ellis at snipped-for-privacy@xstic.net wrote on

11/26/06 8:49 PM:

I assume by your description that you are looking for a "power distribution strip," rather than a "terminal block." PDS takes one set of inputs and duplicated it to a number of outputs (like track power (DC or DCC)); TB's connect one input to one output; you can jumber the outputs if you want to turn on of those into a PDS.

Look at the following page:

Which has both types. There are probably different and cheaper sources, but it looks like one of those Miniatronics devices is what your are seeking.

Electronics shops (well some) can supply a brass 'comb' that slots into one side of the normal electric "chocolate block" to make a distribution block. Alternatively, use short wire "U" pieces to link all one side of the terminals to make your own. It takes a few minutes to convert each block but the ready made alternatives can be very pricy.

Regards, Greg.P.