Today's Lesson

Today Dil Huey, the CCOG electronics guru, came over to drop off sheets of styrofoam for my eventual use in scenery. He also came over with a surprise....he planned to show me how some of the electronics that I have been installing works.
We hooked up some temporary wires to power up some of the circuit boards and tested turnouts and detection. It was amazing to see the things I installed working via computer. I got a good lesson in programming, drawing track plans on the screen and testing the components.
Thanks to Dil.

Workin on the railroad

I was able to get back to work and put in 11 more tortoise machines. I now have 47 in. There are a couple of places where I'll have either put in a contorted switch arm or move the turnouts to a new location.
Rigby Yard now has turnout motors on all the installed switches on the north end, except for two that are in troublesome locations.
While I was at it I took out a straight #6 switch and replaced it with a &.7 curved switch. This move was to bring out the mainline closer to the front. It was it little to close to the backdrop. It would have worked, but I wanted to put in a bridge near there and the bridge wouldn't fit the way it was.

Tortoise Machine update

I have been slack in working on the layout. Traveling this summer will keep me away quite a bit, so this may push back the operating timeline. The good news is I installed 20 tortoise machines today. That brings me up to 36 installed and roughly 79 to go.
All the turnouts in lower staging, mid staging and the town of Belfast, which has the wye leading to mid staging are complete. The town of Bath is mostly done and the town of Cumberland is half done.
There are about 27 to go on the lower level, most of which is in Portland. I am contemplating a change in the South end of Cumberland before I put the tortoise machines in. I'll worry about that when I get Portland done.