It's common practice to

It's common practice to upgrade the 0.025 wire supplied.

My club upgrades to 0.032 wire for hinged points and 0.039 for non-hinged points.

You remembered right. If you

You remembered right. If you working in HO scale you will find that .039 music wire works pretty good. N scale you can get away with the wire that comes with the Tortoise. When you are assembling them with the thicker diameter wire you will need to slightly increase the hole size in the actuator on the tortoise itself. Then just bend the wire as shown in the instructions.

this is also a good idea if you have extremely thick roadbed like your using 2" foam or something like that.

Micro Engineering turnouts

need rebar to hold in place with Tortoise machines. An exaggeration. But not by much.

consider a different approach

the following approach (with some mods) avoids the precision in locating a switch machine.

A single hole for a brass tube can be drilled from the top of the layout, either next to or between the rails.   A bent wire drops through the tube, bent on top to fit into the switch point tie (2nd image).   The wire can be bent again under the the layout and connected with another wire to a Tortoise switch machine located near by (no need to a push rod with clevises).

Remote Tortious Machines

Greg - That is awesome! I’ve been wondering about mounting my machines at the front of the layout behind a removable fascia. Good solution. Thanks!

.039 too stiff IMHO

I have several Tortoises on new style  PECO turnouts and feel thicker wire puts too much pressure on the stock rails. Old style not so much.

Tortoise Switch Machine remote install

You might want to try Cicuitron 800-8101 remotes for your applications. Especially for distance away from the facia. Circuitron kits are quite complete and durable for remote work.

Wayne