I posted a similar question on another forum I frequent but not luck so far on info I can act on so i am hopeful someone here can help.

Throughout my visible layout, and even for almost all of my under layout staging, I intend to manually throw turnouts. But I have a pair of turnouts that will be very hard to get at. They will be used very seldomly, but when they are I am wiring them with PECO PL-11s powered via a CDU and thrown using PECO PL-26 toggles. Here is the scenario:

Between the two turnouts is just a very short length of track (about 4"). Normally, both the mainline and the siding will be straight through. But on those rare occasions where I want to shift between the siding and the mainline in this hidden area, I will throw both turnouts.  Ideally I will trigger both with a single PL-26, but I don't have the CDU yet to see if it will supply enough power allow me to reliably throw both turnouts at once. I have found that without the CDU I cannot reliably and repeatedly throw one of the turnouts by itself. Sometimes it throws, sometimes it does not.  I am using the AC outputs of an old MRC pack to provide the 16V (measured closer to 18V) power to throw the turnouts.  FYI the layout track uses DCC (NEC).

My concern is if for some reason one or another of the turnouts fails to throw (in either direction.) I was thinking that I would like to detect when each turnout has been thrown by having an LED light if the turnout is routing power through to the connecting track. I am using PECO insulfrog power-routing turnouts, so by providing an insulated gap at the center of the connecting track, and not attaching feeders, one half of the connecting track will get its power from one turnout and the other half from the other turnout. 

What I would like to do is be able to have an LED for each half of the connecting track or some other LED arrangement (maybe one LED for each direction of each throw would be even better?)  and have it light up when the connecting track has power. When I am shifting a train between the mainline and the siding, I would want both connecting LEDs on. At all other times I would want both off. If I ever have one on and one off then one of the turnouts failed to throw properly.

I have found a few articles of how to power an LED off of track power, using a fairly small circuit involving the LED, a current limiting resister in series, and possibly an additional diode (reverse direction of leads) in parallel to handle reverse power to not damage the LED. My problem is that while I understands circuits on paper, actually creating one myself is daunting to me, especially for a situation like this where I would not want inexperience or my poor soldering skills to result in a component that fails later and I only find out when I derail a string of cars in a very difficult to get at place that are backing through the turnouts because I think the turnouts both threw but they didn't.

So ideally I am wondering if such a device exists that I can just buy two or more of off the shelf and just wire to the track. I am not an electronics guy and while I might be able to do it myself from components, it would be my first time ever trying to wire my own small electronic circuit from discrete components and I suspect it would not be pretty.  If nothing off the shelf exists, then I would be grateful for guidance not only on components but on what I should buy to mount the components on, whether I should buy an enclosure (I see a Protoboard eith matching enclosure from Hammodn seems to run about $12 for a small one from the lowest price source I found), or if not in an enclosure then how to mount the circuit under the layout, etc.  I can be a bit clumsy under the layout at times so I would want to make sure I did not damage it inadvertently once in place.

Suggestions - particularly some understanding of my wariness about doing this myself, appreciated.  This is just one of those areas of model railroading that is not a high confidence area for me from never having done it before, unlike the way I feel comfortable with other areas like my benchwork and scenery work.  I am not worried about it costing more for something off the shelf if such exists.  Assuming it is in the few tens of dollars per and not hundreds the cost is fine for peace of mind on this item.  For that matter, if nothing off the shelf exists, I would consider paying someone to make what I need and package it up assuming gain we are not talking in the hundreds for the finished items ready to connect and mount.

Funny thing is, I see a lot of people have asked about turnout direction detection over the years when I google it.  I would have thought there would be a good market for something like this and it would be readily available.

Thanks,

-Ed