Now that the apparent shortage of Micro Engineering Switches is over, I have been able to mostly complete the track laying in the town area of the layout. I haven’t shown much of this side lately as I have been focused on scenery on the other side of the peninsula. One of the great things about building a model railroad layout is that there are always several things that can be worked on. When I get burned out on casting rocks I can switch to structures or track work.

Today was one of those days where I was ready for a change of scenery and started laying track. As I have been running the trains quite a bit also, it is exciting to have some more track to explore.

The above picture is an overview of the yard area. The building outline in foam board to the right is where the Car Maintenance Shed will be located.

One new trick I learned during this iteration was to use a 3/8″ Forstner Drill Bit to start the hole for the Tortoise switch throw bar. This results in a much cleaner edge in the Homasote that I don’t have to trim in order to avoid interfering with the throw bar.

After actually installing the LITco switch this evening, all I can say is “Wow”. What a great product at an economical price. They roughly cost the same as the MicroEngineering switches and take a little longer to install but combined with handlaid track they would be impressive. Some of the effect is lost as I have combined them with Micro-Engineering flex but I bet with hand laid track they would really be beautiful.

The above picture is after I spiked down the turnout. I made sure to adequately spike the switch around the points as the stiff .047 lever I use with the Tortoise apply quite a bit of pressure.

Wiring was fairly straightforward but it is necessary to power route the frog. I do this using the auxiliary contacts on the Tortoise machine. I also used MicroEngineering code 83 insulated rail joiners to isolate the frog. Essentially the frog runs from the points all the way through to the end of the switch.

Once I attached the track to the divergent route and finished the wiring, it was time for test run. It took approximately an hour to install the switch.

The LITco On30 switches are very nicely made and a great value. When I build the next section of layout beyond Camp Two (shhh… don’t tell the wife), expect to see me combine these switches with hand laid track. I love the look of hand laid but could not stomach trying to build enough turnouts for the current iteration. The LITco switches very effectively solve that problem.

Update: I just received notification that Micro-Mark has finally shipped my back ordered switches.

Here is a summary of rail joiners I tried and the results from worst to best:

• Atlas – Too big and very loose fitting. Had to squeeze together with pliers first. I do not recommend even though they claim to be for code 83 track.
• Walters – Small in length and height but do not fit at all. I do not recommend.
• Peco – Fit well but they are similar in size to Atlas in terms of length and height. If ME rail joiners are not available, these are nice back up.
• Micro-Engineering – Perfect.

I use a very large gun type soldering iron, probably larger then I need, but I have not had problems melting any ties and it heats the rail to soldering temperature very fast. I do solder the feeders to the bottom of the rail as I do not like seeing them. I solder feeders to every piece of flex.

I mark and drill a couple of holes in the roadbed almost directly underneath the solder points. I lay down a small bead of Liquid Nails adhesive and spread it out using a scrap piece of wood. I then start the wires through the holes, connect the rail joiners, and weight the track down until the adhesive sets.

Here is a finished picture to highlight how unnoticeable the feeders are and an overall shot of progress in the area.

Admittedly, it wasn’t much progress but I now have another 10 feet of track for my Shay to run around on.

The switch machine moves the switch turnout by level action through the roadbed with piano wire. The first step is to mark where the 5/16″ hole should be drilled. Then move the turnout and drill the hole.

The next step is to assemble the actual Tortoise machine according to instructions. I do replace the light piano wire that comes with the machine with a heavier .034 gauge wire due to the thickness of my roadbed. Cutout the template from the instructions in order to help with drilling the mounting holes. At this time I also solder the leads onto the PC board. The two outside leads will connect to the decoder and the three inner ones are used to power route the frog. I use red for the frog wire because I always forget which one is the frog lead of the three.

The next step is to use the drilling template to drill the mounting holes that will later be used to screw the machine to the underside of the roadbed. I drop a pencil into the previously drilled 5/16″ hole in order to properly align the template. I then tape the template to the underside and drill the holes. I will use 1/2″ #6 pan head screws to mount the machine so I use a 1/16″ drill for the pilot holes.

Now comes the fun part that also requires some preparation and manual dexterity. Make sure your #1 phillips screwdriver and screws are within easy reach. Connect the turnout to the adjacent track using rail joiners and spike the turnout down to prevent movement. Next starts the fun. Feed the control lever through the roadbed and thread it through the hole in the turnout throw bar. Hopefully you ensured that the hole in the throw bar is big enough for the piano wire. With some wiggling and try and error it can be done. Once you get it, don’t lose it. Holding on to the machine with one hand, use your other free hand to screw in the first screw. With the right screwdriver I use the tip of my finger to hold the screw on the point while I position the screw in the hole and start turning. It takes a little practice and a few dropped screws to get it right.

The hard part is done! Now we just need to wire up the decoder and do something with all of these dangling wires. Before doing that, use a Dremel with cut-off wheel to trim the piano wire that is sticking up through the throw bar. I won’t go into the details of the decoder wiring as the NCE directions are plenty clear. The two outer control wires will go into either set of control terminals (Switch A or Switch B) as one Switch-It controls two motors. Two wires go from the bus wires to the track terminals on the Switch-It. Finally, we need to deal with the frog power routing. Solder the frog lead wire to the frog. Manually align the switch machine and use the voltmeter to confirm polarity of the other two frog leads from position 2 and 3 on the Tortoise PC board. Once confirmed, connect those two leads to the bus using suitcase connectors.

All that is left now is to test. Make sure the switch machine can freely move left and right without binding. If it binds then adjust the switch machine or the turnout until it doesn’t. By default the Switch-It is accessory decoder #1 and #2. They can be programmed differently but I’ll save that for another blog post. Fire up the DCC system and cycle the switch. That’s it! You now can control another element of your miniature world without leaving your comfy stool.

The middle picture shows the current progress of track laying. Track is now laid from the sawmill site to the tip of the canyon.

The final picture is of all the tools that I use to lay and wire track. It is a very precise operation and a man can never have enough tools.

1. Solder Feeder wires to bottom of rails.
2. Drill holes for feed wires to pass through plywood to wire bus.
3. Trim and fit track together with adjacent piece using rail cutters and rail joiners.
4. Drill tiny holes in a few of the ties for spikes to attach track to roadbed.
5. Connect feeder wires to bus using suitcase connectors. Suitcase connectors are the best and deserve their own blog post.