Photo time, at last...

OK, so here's a series of photos, showing the recent Tortoise installs, and a (very messy) overview of the layout as it exists at the moment. I'll be very glad to start working on scenery, but I'm forcing myself to finish wiring, track, and turnouts first.

First up is a tour of the layout - here's Vance Junction, with Lizard Head curving above it. On the right you can see the wye from Vance heading toward Telluride's penisula.



And here's a couple shots of Telluride:





And here's Ridgway's yard:





This is Rico, with just the main line and sidings laid so far.



Here's Hesperus, with the area for Durango unfinished above it. Lots of scenery will hopefully hide most of the yard lead directly above Hesperus behind a ridge.



And here's Dolores. Again, scenery is intended to nearly hide the line climbing above it on the way to Lizard Head.



Here's the staging tracks cutting thru the bathroom. There's a main line between Dolores and Mancos hidden under those staging tracks, too.



And this is the crossover into the Ridgway yard lead, which is hidden in a closet in the bathroom, before the Tortoises were added.



And finally, one of the two Tortoises above ground in the closet; the one that's installed is part of the crossover, and there's linkages prepared for another, handling the first switch in the yard lead for Ridgway. My method here was to carefully drill a #70 hold in the Peco linkage (after snipping off the nub), then running that thru some aluminum tubing drilled into a bit of scrap masonite. The tubing keeps the throw wire from popping up or moving around too much.



And here's the turnouts at Vance, handling a 3-way Peco, with one motor above (hidden in a tunnel eventually, I hope), and the other below.



And a closeup of the upper machine at Vance - using a slightly different method to grab hold of the Peco. I like the method used at Ridgway better, but this seems to be working fine.

Tortoise installs

Wow... has it really been a month and a half since that last post?

Anyway, I've managed to get another 4 Tortoise installs done, along w/ the related control-panel wiring. The turnouts for both ends of the Ophir siding are done now, as is the hidden crossover in the bathroom closet, just outside of Ridgway's yard. That was difficult; I will (promise!) post photos soon of that one.

Next up is trying to find a way to install Tortoises on the 3-way at the start of Ridgway's yard, which is a difficult reach from the aisle. Another Tortoise is about finished on the first turnout of the Ridgway yard ladder - that one also being in the closet.

A good weekend!

This Thanksgiving break was really nice - very relaxed at home. I had good time w/ the family, and also some time for layout work. And on that front, I was able to complete all of the electrical work at the Vance Jct wye - turnout motors are all in, panel and LEDs are wired and functioning, the reverser relay for the wye (actually, for all of Telluride) is in and operational - it's all good!

My first tortoise install

I've FINALLY finished wiring all the detector and force-red circuits, and panel LEDs for them, all that stuff. My dwarf signals are complete and ready to install, but aren't in yet.

But - one of the panels also needs to control some of the turnouts for a wye remotely, and since I wired all the LEDs and switches for that, I thought it was finally time to tackle a Tortoise install - for a code 75 small-radius Peco wye turnout.

I used a method from Rich's methods, using some metal tubing and spring wire. I like this because I got to lay track w/o worrying about drilling large holes under each turnout as I went.

So - I've got the first one done now, but not wired; it seemed to go pretty well. I underestimated how difficult it'd be to actually get it screwed into place upside down - and this was the probably the easiest of the places I need these!

Oh well - challenges are good, right? I'll try and get a photo posted eventually.

Wiring signals now

I've been slowly working my way through wiring detectors and LED indicators in my panels, for the various hidden-track sections of the layout.

Tonight, I started working in earnest on wiring a number of 2-light dwarf signals (Oregon Rail Supply), which will be installed at the entrance to all the hidden track sections. These are a bit more work to wire than I expected - as you have to figure out where to physically locate the resistors for the LEDs (I opted for below the layout - meaning I had to wire the LEDs with a short length of wire, then the resistor(s), then more wire which would attach to the 'real' wiring below the layout somewhere).

Anyway - it's going smoothly now. I debated for a long time between normal block signals, and the much smaller dwarfs, because the RGS never had any signals (of course). I settled on the dwarfs because I don't want to 'model' block signalling, but just want to give my operators some indicator of whether they can proceed into the hidden blocks or not. So I kinda have block signals, and kinda don't, if that makes any sense.

Hopefully I'll post some photos once they're built & installed.