Thank God I used white glue & l girder

[rrinker]

Uggh, I hate that when you accidently click somewhere else your whole message is gone. Anyway, that is $19.95 for each turnout including the buttons and LEDs and the DCC decoder as well as the servo itself. If you aren;t going to use DCC then the Octopus is for you, it controls 8 servos and is not a DCC decoder. You cna use whatever toggle switches orpushbuttons you like, or get the pushbuttons with LEDs that they have. I get my servos from eBay in 6 packs for $13, although there is a note that some of those cheap servos do not work with the Octopus. I plan to someday have a CTC panel so I use the Singlets and Quads although I will for now only be using the pushbuttons on the fascia to control them. The Motrak servo mounts make it as easy as any Tortoise although there are alternate ways to mount the servos that are cheaper, including simple 90 degree brackets. All in all it costs about the same as a Tortoise (they list for $19.95 in singles now) but you get the buttons and LEDs too. Singlets in quantity (5 or more) plus the ebay servos comes out to about $15 per turnout, the Octopus may or may not be cheaper because of what appears to be the inability to use the cheap servos.

This is not limited to turnouts, it will handle semaphors and just about anythign else you need to animate. Plus if you have some wierd one where the turnout access is blocked by scenery or a lower level you have the millions of items in the model airplane department to chose from for all sorts of crazy linkages. Although you might not have any clearance problems - a servo is a fraction of the size of a Tortoise. Craig Bisgeier is using them to great affect on his Housatonic layout. I sold because I do want the DCC option, and no where can I get a Tortoise, a DCC decoder, buttons for manual control, and LEDs for $19.95 a turnout. With my benchwork being no more than 2' wide at any point I generally don't even need any extension cords, the ones that come witht he servos are long enough. Those too you cna get for a miniscule price on eBay, to the point of it not being worth it to make your own.

--Randy