I went to Radio Shack over Christmas to pick up some barrier strips that I needed for the layout. I’m just finishing the main line and have a lot of industry/yard track to go, so I’ll need more soon. They were practically out of all sizes. I chocked it up to the holidays and went on. I returned to day and the rack where they are kept had 3 4 position strips in stock, a place for 8 position strips with none in stock, and no place for any others. When I asked the guy working he said they weren’t going to be carrying the others (4 and 6 positon) any more and didn’t know when or even if they would get more 8 position strips in.
Frustrated I went home and checked their web site. Radio Shack shows all strips except 2 positon out of stock with no word on when they will restock. I can’t believe Radio Shack is going to quit carrying these. I suppose I’ll have to find anothe online source as no one else that I can find carries them locally.
Yeah, the $hack has moved away from stuff like that I’m afraid. My LHS carries barrier strips though. A bit high priced, but I’d rather spend my money there than at Radio $hack.
Raido $hack used to be a great resource. I am affriad though that in the last 5 years they have become over priced and never carry wht your looking for when you need it. They went from a great small store frendily place to a corperate mantality and it shows. To bad to because I used to spend a lot of time at their stores.
Curt
They recently closed hundreds (or was it 1000’s) of “underperforming” stores. They are moving their concentration to selling consumer end items like cell phones and satellite radio.
I purchased a barrier strip, 9 position some time ago, but it didn’t do what I wanted, I wanted to feed power on one end and have power terminals to feed off of down the strip, what do I buy?
They sell jumpers designed to hook all the positions of a strip together so you can do exactly what you want: take a 9 position and use 1 terminal for input power and have 17 available hookups for output.
Or you could go the cheap way and just cut 8 short pieces of wire and hook all the positions together by yourself! Its a bit messier, but works well.
All the shack wants to carry today are electronic noise boxes. Years ago people actually used their minds for something other than pushing buttons, taking and listening.
Now days it is simple things for simple minds.[xx(]
[#ditto] I have run into the same problem here locally. It’s not that I don’t want to purchase the strips online, I don’t want to have to wait for them to arrive via shipping. That can sometimes be quite long.
My local Home Depot carries them in stock. They are back in the area with the crimp on wire ends, plugs, doorbells etc. They are more expensive than the ones that they sell at the various electronics on line and mail order companies, but when it is 9:00pm and you just got to have a barrier terminal strip that is the place to go.
I would imagin they have them at Lowes and others, but I saw them at HD in person.
My HD has them also, they are quite a bit more expensive, though, as mentioned above. I asked about jumpers when I looked at them, the guy told me they don’t carry them and that I should go to Radio Shack, which, as many of us have found out, doesn’t carry much of this stuff anymore. [banghead] LOL
A barrier strip is one of several types of terminal strips that has physical insulating barriers between “positions” where wires are connected by a screw. One can bridge one or several barriers to make multiple connections to one circuit.
I’d also recommend the “Eurostyle” strips – they have holes for wire to be inserted, and small screws (already installed) that clamp down on the wire. All you have to do is strip the end of the wire – no connectors, no wrapping around a screw head, etc. They’re plastic, so get the 12-position ones and cut off what you don’t need in one place – you’ll find a use for the rest sooner or later!
oops- had my 2 cents worth in the “quoted” text by mistake . . .
I won’t echo what many others have said about “where” to buy barrier strips…but I will say this…one lookaround inside ANY Radio Shack store will quickly tell you the products that Radio Shack is now trying to push, and therefore what Market they want to play in…and it ain’t electronic parts!!!
Just went to my local Radidio Shack today. I don’t know about your individual store, but I was assured the Radio Shack is still going to carry Barrior Terminal Strips. Radio Shacks warehouses are out of them at the moment as are many stores including my own. This is probably due to the tax that Manufacturers have to pay on all items in warehouses at the end of the year. They will be back in stock soon.
As far as the European type termial strip, I find little use for them as I only use a terminal barrior strip where I want to make multiple connection off one input. The jumpers refered to earlier allow easy connection of several branches off one imput. I use them like this:
You see two #12 bus wires from the DCC Bus attached to the 8 position terminal strip. I have 7 feeders coming off each side of the strip. Six pairs are going tracks as feeders, and the last pair continue the DCC Bus. I later added 2 more (doubled up on the strip) going to the Tortioses to feed the frogs to switches. The European types are useless for this and are only used to be able to terminate a set of wires and hook the same set up again on the other side.
