Not Quite The End Of Rewiring

As I mentioned in my last post, one part of this project has been replacing nearly all the twin-coil switch machines from nearly 30 years ago. This has been a bigger issue because these were installed from the bottom up with a body almost 30 years younger, and the few that are left are pretty far back under the layout. No way I'm climbing back under there.

I had been thinking about what to do when the twin-coils finally gave out for quite a while. Eventually I decided the best thing would be to replace the switches themselves, early Walthers-Shinohara code 83, with Kato Unitrack HO powered #6s. These have the switch machines built into the roadbed, no need to get under the table at all, and just a two-wire hookup to a Digitrax DS52 for control. I decided that all I needed to do was clear out the cork roadbed, cut and carve out a space for the new Kato switch, and move the new one in. In fact, I could just get rid of the old Eshelman turnout link and leave the old twin-coil where it is.

My experience with Kato switches and DCC on my T-Trak layout convinced me this would work. Here's the sequence:

I discovered a spoon is a good tool for prying up cork ballast and dispersing old ballast clumps. A shop vac is then important for cleanup.

The Kato HO Unitrack switches are very robust and operate beautifully. The downside is the tie spacing is a lot wider than is common in the US. I airbrushed some Floquil Railroad Tie Brown over it to de-emphasize the ties.

Test run over the switch. Works great! This was about a 3-day project. One more like this to do, then two Tortoises to hook up to DS52s and a last twin-coil to repace with a Smail.