January 4, 2024
You may have thought I gave up! Busy doing other things – trip to California to see my mom, building storage shelves in the garage and hobby room, and of course holidays. Happy New Year!
It took a while to wire all 61 Tortoises in Gerber. All switches have live points so there is a minimum of 9 connection points, 12 when I have installed LEDs to show track alignment. That is over 600 connections in addition to feeder wires every 6′. All connections are soldered. It is DONE!
Building the layout at 51″ and not installing the fascia yet allowed me to use a rolling cart to work underneath.
The main track busses had not been hooked up to DCC yet allowing me to test each new switch when installed. This is very important, so one is not chasing down shorts later. Patch cords are used to test each new switch as it is being installed and make adjustments to polarity of the frog and throw direction of the switch.
Racks were made for the backs of bookcases in my workroom to store Floquil (yes, I have a healthy supply), acrylics, and other hobby supplies. I have done a lot of unpacking and sorting of hobby materials that have been in boxes since our move 2 years ago. I’m finally feeling like I can start building structures soon now that the layout is progressing nicely. I also set up my laser cutter and made the neighbors Christmas ornaments. Cutting some yard structures is next.
