09-07-2010, 11:46 AM
Gary S Wrote:Have you tried the turn-out/tortoise yet?
I missed this the first time around. Yes. I did get the mechanicals wired up last night and had a chance to try out the Tort with the remote mount. I happy to report that it works rather well, in other words, it does what its supposed to do. It's a little daunting at first as it is a bag of parts when you get it. Pay close attention to the Teflon tube and stainless steel wire clamps as they all look the same, however have slightly different grooves and alignment tabs. I played with the pieces for a while until I was confident about where they were going. A careful read and re-read of the instructions certainly did not hurt either.
About those instructions. They are very detailed and superb, the only way Circuitron could have made them better is by having some one install it for you. I did test the set up before hand with a 12v power supply before I wired it to the decoder to check how well it would throw the points, as suggested by the instructions, which I would absolutely recommend to anyone putting one of these in. I also increased the guage of the throw bar wire as I have done with all my turnouts for a heavier spring action at the points.
A bit of pre planning made the connections a snap. I wired all my existing track feeders for the turnout to a terminal block and then ran a slightly heavier gauge wire back to the DCC buss. The decoder also has two wires which were connected to the buss. Plus a fifth and final wire to the HFJ for the turnout frog. I had the connections made in a matter of minutes, which was a relief to me.
I have some other track feeders I can install tonight for the existing rail that I have spiked down. I might get to some painting and weathering the track and deck tonight as well. I also have to finish the front row of piles and notch out the pier so that it can accomodate the float bridge.
Still a ways to go on this structure, but I'm happy I'm moving along on it.
