Ok now for the Tyco Quik-Clik and Tomy crowd,

You'll need some HO train rail joiners this time,
I carefully unfolded them so there flat, and it should look like the one on the right afterwards,
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/terminaltrackVI.jpg

Now with a pair of tin snips cut the flattened rail joiner into four pieces like this,
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/terminaltrackVIII.jpg

And soldering them to the wires like shown,
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/terminaltrackIX.jpg

Now just carefully slip the ends next to the rails from under the track,
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/terminaltrackX.jpg
(Hint: before hookup take a look at how the track rails slide over each other to know on what side of the track rails to place the soldered wires.)
Now test out your handy work.
(Hint 2:) I would also recommend some hot glue here to secure the connection to the track to avoid any wire slip off as the vibration of the cars could cause the wires to break loose from the track rails.

You'll still need to make sure all terminal tracks are layed down in the right order with lanes 1 and 2 all matched up and of course adding in the controller.

This should give the track a cleaner look and also avoid having to cover up all those stock terminals.

** Opps sorry all, but this method does not work for the Tomy track but I have figured out a solution.

Good tips. Maybe you could put 'em on the web for everyone to see. (HO World?)

GP

Tycoarm,

Can you elaborate on this method more? I'm trying to understand the process for attaching these wires with the soldered ends to the track.

Do you slide them between the tracks where they touch as in the photo below? If so, then I'm guessing you do this as you are attaching the track pieces to each other.

http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/2161/2288776170099980462S500x500Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2288776170099980462arqlUA)

Would the wires then drop straight down through your table? Where would they glue to as you mention?

Are you still using this menthod for your power tap tracks?

Thanks for any additional info you can provide.

Sorry about not responding earlier Scaf but my connection was down yesterday.

I guess I should have tried my method with the Tomy track before posting, after reading your post I tried it and found that it doesn't work the same as the Tyco track the Tomy track has tabs that get in the way of the wires.

But I did come up with a solution for you.

First here's a pic to show where the joiners will go, if you hold a piece of Tomy track to the light you'll notice these gaps along side the rails, sorry but I only have this Tomy lap counter to use as reference.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/DSCF1986.jpg

You'll still have to unfold and cut a few HO train track rail joiners and solder them to some wire, but the way you cut them will be as shown.
You want the tapered end up, this will make it easier to slip into the gap.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/DSCF1985.jpg

Now carefully try to slip the tapered end into the small gaps from under the track, if you have some difficullty you could try slipping an Exacto blade in the gap to open it up a bit but be careful you don't want to make the gap to large where the rail joiner won't rest firm up against the power rail.

Ok it should look like this,
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/DSCF1988.jpg
and this,
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/tycobro/DSCF1991.jpg
now just test the connections if ok then hot glue them from underneath to the track to keep them from working loose.

the last thing to do is to remove the excess joiner, use a cut of wheel then slowly grind it flush with the top of the rail.

You'll still have to mark where the wires will hang down from the track on the table.

Are you still using this method for your power tap tracks?
Yes Scaf, I'm still using this method with no power loss issues .

Hope this helps Scaf and I'm sorry for the bad information I'll have to edit that post.

Thank you so much!

That looks like something that I may be able to actually do! I will try it this week , and update with my results.

Thanks again!! :thumbsup: