I ended up with a bit of a dilemma when laying out the Wye on the final section of my HOn3 PC&N Ry. In order to have the Wye fit and leave enough room for at least one engine and car at the far end, I would have to tighten up the Wye radius to 18". I really wanted to keep my 22" minimum radius but that meant the Wye wouldn't even have enough room for a single engine at the far end.

I had seen drop down extensions for Wye legs on other layouts but I didn't really like how it would still hang out in the way even when down. Then I thought what if it could be removed when not in use and the support slid under the layout out of the way?

I had a coupe old drawer slides and after some pondering found that I could mount them on their sides and have enough clearance for the lower level track and when they were extended have a base for and extension!

So after quite a bit of trial and error I have my Wye extension finished and working. It drops onto the drawer slides and has electrical contacts that power the extension rails automatically. I epoxied a couple of old name badge magnets to the bottom that mate up with the drawer slides and snap it into place.

Additionally, I can use the extension to take an engine off the layout and over to the programming bench and it then becomes a programming track as well.

I did have to compromise a little and drop to a 21" radius on the Wye, but the trains look so much better than they would have on an 18" radius. Perhaps my little adventure will help someone think "out of the box" the next time they are faced with a seemingly impossible problem.

Ross A