This is a photo of a Tortoise switch machine and an 8-point barrier strip attached to a 4"x4" 3/4" plywood mounting plate. Note that all of the Tortoise connector pads are wired to the barrier strip. This allows easy connection to the Tortoise circuitry as needed. The 0.025" spring wire throw bar provided by Circuitron has been replaced by a piece of 0.032" spring wire, bent into the same shape indicated in the Tortoise instruction sheet. Also visible in this picture is one of the two countersunk mounting holes. A 1-1/4" long #8 wood screw will be used with this hole to mount the mounting plate to the underside of the layout. |
Here is a view from above the layout, showing the wire linkage installed in the turnout. In this case the wire is run from between the point rails to the throwbar between the points. Also visible is the end of the 3/32" brass tube that provides a sleeve for the 0.032" wire between the top of the layout and the underside where the linkage is caught by the wire on the switch machine |
Here is another switch with the wire linkage installed. This time the hole for the linkage is located outside of the switch, with the wire running from the hole to the rivet on the throwbar between the points. The location of the hole and the angle at which the under-layout portion of the linkage is bent are determined by the constraints of the installation of that switch machine. The constraints include the location of other mounting plates, obstacles such as the power feeder locations, and the general aesthetics of the situation. |
Here is a view of the installed switch machine, with the focus on the linkage. The end of the brass tube can be seen, as well as the lower portion of the wire linkage. The kind-of-right-angle bend can be seen where the wire exits the tube, as well as the U-shaped bend into which the wire on the Tortoise catches to operate the turnout. |
This is another installed switch machine, with a better look at the U-shaped portion of the wire linkage. |
This is what the underside of the Mainline Yard looks like with many (but not all!) of the switch machines installed. Note that the orientation of each machine is determined by the local conditions under the layout, such as the location of a terminal block to which all of the red and black power wires connect. In the lower left background the back of the control panel can be seen. A green/yellow pair of wires runs from each Tortoise to a barrier strip inside the control panel. |
The next step in hooking up the switchmachines is constructing the diode pair that will be placed in series with the switchmachine. If two LEDs are used, nose to tail and tail to nose, one will light for one direction of operation of the turnout and the other will light for the other direction of operation of the turnout. We only want one LED to indicate one of the turnout positions, so we replace one of the LEDs with a simple diode. This picture shows an LED with a diode attached, anode to cathode. |
This rather busy picture of the back of the control panel shows the LED/diode connected to the DPDT switch that operates the switch machine. The switch machine power is supplied on a green and yellow pair attached to the center pair of terminals on the DPDT switch. The DPDT switch is wired as a regular reversing switch, with the leads to the switch machine leaving the switch from the far pair of terminals in this picture. The green lead leaving the DPDT switch goes directly to the terminal block to which the switch machine wiring is connected. The yellow lead connects to the LED/diode combination and another yellow lead then goes to the terminal block. |
In this photo we see the wiring used to show two indications for one turnout, one for each position. The LEDs are simply wired in parallel, but with the anode of one connected to the cathode of the other. In this example, the amber LED will light when one route is selected, and the red LED will light when the other route is selected. |
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