One issue that I encountered building the layout is that occasionally the switch motor installation needed a bit of tweaking before it worked correctly. The tortoise motor always worked, but sometimes the motor position, alignment or extended actuator wire shape was, shall we say, suboptimal. I had been hooking things up, then wandering around with the throttle and triggering the motors with switch commands. But I found this was a pain, particularly when the turnout was in an inaccessible part of the layout.

Then, it dawned on me that if I assembled a little test harness with a connector plug, power supply (unused PS14) and dpdt control switch I could exercise the thing as it was being installed. Right now it is just a tangle of wires but with a little project box and a longer cable on the plug it should be useful.

Checking the first three turnouts in the new track layout, I found that one (the hand laid one...) worked just fine but the two #6 Atlas turnouts for the Tamworth extension interchange track need some fine tuning. The turnout needs to be anchored more solidly to the base - it almost but not quite closes in the thrown position.

Tomorrow I will hunt through my electrical junk box to see if there is a small plastic outlet box, else I will need to hunt up a project box at the local radio shack. I have this delusion of putting a couple of LEDs across the tortoise contacts -- if for no other reason than user entertainment.

Will post a picture and wiring diagram of the thing after it gets enclosed. Also curious as to whether anyone else has done something similar.