Christmas Trees

The package of Christmas Trees that I purchased at WalMart contained six trees connected in parallel and powered by two AA cells in a switch box.  I wanted four trees in the lowlands, and one tree on each side of the highlands.

The base of each tree was the size of a quarter, so I laid a quarter down at the location desired for each of the four lowland trees and traced around them with a pencil.  I removed all of the lowland buildings and removed the quarter-inch foam so that I work with it. Then I used an X-Acto Knife to cut out a circular piece of the foam at each location.

I pushed the tree furthest from the power pack into the hole at the south end of the street, inserted the next one through the hole behind the bank and train station, the next by the blue house, and the fourth beside the Victorian house.

I cut the wire just past the fifth tree and about ten inches from the power box. Then I soldered the leads from the power box to the lugs of a Radio Shack 1/8-inch phone plug.  I discovered that, unlike most DC circuits, the LEDs of the Christmas trees won't light unless wired correctly - copper wire to copper and silver to silver. I cut apart the remaining two trees, then soldered all the leads to a Radio Shack 1/8-inch phone jack and attached it in place on the suitcase.

I glued the bases of each lowland tree to the foam with Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue. The two highland trees have to wait.

Because the Christmas tree LEDs operate on 3 volts and Z scale trains use much more, the train power pack must never be plugged into the tree outlet.  To help prevent this, I took another 1/8-inch plug and bent the contacts until they broke off.  Then I cut the plastic housing so that it was only about a quarter-inch long.  I filled the open end with some enamel paint.  Now this Safety Plug can be inserted when the trees' power supply is not in use to prevent accidental insertion of the train power plug.