Switch wiring milestone

Yeehaa! Ive finished all but one of that set of switches. I had to leave one undone due to running out of wire, but the one left is the easiest one to access. Even better, there were no more switch problems -- all the switch machines connected since the last post worked fine on the first try.

Here is what the temporary switch board looks like:


It's quick and dirty, but will suffice until I figure out a permanent solution. For each tier the switches are generally in a line, so I set up the board that way, with the left switch control being the "Straight" or "Normal" direction and right being the Diverging direction (as the label at the bottom indicates). The board itself was cut from a leftover piece of 3/4" plywood that had been used for paint testing, hence the interesting color.

The picture below shows the bridge area, sans bridge, with the switch wires visible. I bundled them together with tape but haven't fixed them in position yet pending the permanent switch control solution:


Except for the switch wiring everything is as it was a week ago. I did vacuum all around in preparation for finishing the bridge, which I will start today.

There are a couple lessons I've noted down from this week's experience:

1. Despite my intense budget consciousness, I've going to bow to the inevitable and accept that the best choice for switch power on the main layout will be the popular Tortoise. These are expensive relative to the snap-relay type of motor, but you can get them for $160 per 12 pack at Charleston Digital and the other price leaders, which reduces the pain somewhat. I reached this conclusion after working with the Atlas snap-relay switch machines. Yes, Peco and others make a better snap-relay than Atlas, but the whole concept just isn't as sound, in terms of reliable operation, as the slow-motion switch motor.
   
   Of course, once you accept that you have to use Tortoises for reliability there are a few other benefits that come with them. You get the SPST leads for powering the frog, you solve the problem of how to have the system remember the switch position, and you can use a cheaper decoder for switch control (such as the Digitrax DS44) than with the snap-relays.
   
   On the down side, the Tortoise eats up a lot of space under the layout, and that might be a problem under the upper deck. So, I'll keep looking for an alternative slow motion switch machine. However, the ones I've seen so far are more expensive than the Tortoise.
   
   As I get closer to working on the main layout I'll order some 12 packs of Tortoises and some decoders to go with them. I'll also revisit a past project: modifying the Tortoise so that it can power two switches at once. This cost-saving approach is useful in situations -- for example, a crossover -- where both switches will always change at the same time, so two switch motors aren't necessary.


2. The other big lesson from this week was the benefit of completing a part of the project end-to-end before moving on. In this case, I learned that I could have saved time by filing the switch rails and setting up the switch wiring before I installed each switch. But I didn't learn that until after I had the switches in place and found problems during testing.
   
   So, thinking ahead to how to apply this lesson on the main layout, I've decided to complete the scenic treatment on one section before I go back to laying new track. This is because I expect that once complete I'll learn some things that may change my track laying approach. The section I choose will probably be one that gets the least notice, so that mistakes won't be as obvious. Probably the north side of the peninsula, which not only can't be seen when you enter the room, but is also one of the least visually interesting segments of the layout.