This garden railway, although small by typical standards, is still large
and complex enough to present a wiring problem. Here are some of my
experiences in this area.
Transformers, etc., protected from the weather in outdoor waterproof
junction boxes
Unless you bury your wiring a long way down (more than a few inches),
it will tend to come to the surface as the soil moves. I've found it
quite difficult to prevent this happening. Even piling heaps of gravel
on top of the buried wiring doesn't entirely prevent this. Since you
can't keep your wiring absolutely underground, it makes sense to use
black or brown cable because it is less obvious than, say, white.
Unfortunately, electrical cable is usually white, and it's necessary
to shop around a bit to get any other colour. You'd think that a company
like LGB would make unobtrusive cable, but their cable is red and blue,
which is as unsightly as it can possibly be
I don't much like the idea of using mains-voltage cabling in the
garden. I particularly don't like the idea of having a bunch of
cables, some of which are mains-voltage and some of which are low-voltage.
Shock-protection devices are very good these days, but I'd rather not
have to rely on them routinely. Low-voltage versions are available for
more-or-less anything you'd want to run in the garden
Railway speed controllers, transformers, pump controllers, etc., are
usually not very waterproof. This is rather surprising, given the intended
application, but it's true. So ideally it's best to house them indoors.
But if your railway is too far from the nearest building for this to be
practical, what you you going to do? The best idea I've been able to come
up with is to house them in large, waterproof electrical junction
boxes (see photo). These are available from electrical suppliers, for
about £20 and are designed to be used outdoors. So far this
strategy seems to be working
