My plan is to use servos to move the points of my turnouts. To that end I have ordered a bunch of servos from HobbyKing. I chose one that was recommended by MERG (Model Electronics Railway Group) to use with their kit form of the Megapoints controller. The Megapoints board is a commercial product that was offered to MERG to be made into a DIY electronics kit at a reduced price. I ordered the kit and built it with no problems. It requires a 12v DC source at a minimum of 2A. I am using a switching power supply for that from China. 

Hi All, good evening,

Just want to share the "minor surgery" I had to do in my layout. A crossover between a runaround track and a departure track.

I should have known from the start that I would need to do this. After all, before and while planning the layout I read, I guess, all the books on the subject! Even the John Armstrong book...

Anyway, one only notices the fault when it is needed.

So, here goes.

The idea is to place a crossover here:

I would like to make some 'sectional type track' in larger lengths, and bigger curves' than what you can purchase. And I figure to make it out of flex track.

Unlike the situation where you are laying flex track out on a layout roadbed and attaching it to the roadbed, and nailing or glueing it in down in place, I'm looking to have some 'sectional tracks' that are a very consistant curves, and in larger lengths than we normally think of.

So how do I make up these larger sections from normal HO flex track code100??

Well, we've got the branchline track laid, and the central division yard is next.  Once the trackwork is operational, we'll be in a position to actually "operate".  To support that, I plan to build two moveable staging yards, HMS North and South, one for "north sub" and one for "south sub".  The north sub must contain four trains, while the south will need tracks for six.  With these modules installed, we'll be able to operate all the anticipated trains, and get a feel for operation of the division yard.