Back To Normal-Plus

With my SB5 fully installed and operational, I'm getting back to other layout tasks as well as operation. With the SB5 and a new 14AWG DCC power bus that mostly supplants the old 22AWG analog DC block wiring, I'm discovering that main line speeds are faster. In fact, locos whose speed matching had been effective with the old block wiring are no longer compatible with an SB5 and 14AWG wiring, so I'll need to redo some consists.

Also, I've taken the opportunity to extend switch machine control with stationary DCC decoders. Here is the newest install, covering the switch at CP Crucero

The giant screw behind the Explorer is a sign that the fascia is still removed for the work. Here's the Digitrax DS52 newly mounted below the scene above:

You can also see the new 14AWG power bus going into the terminal strip. One reason I keep working to replace my old toggle control for the Tortoise machines is that the toggles are cheap Radio Shack parts, and of course Radio Shack is no longer around -- I'm a little nostalgic for a time when I could stop by and pick up things like terminal strips or toggles on my lunch hour.

Here is the scene at Cantil spur, whose Radio Shack toggle had disintegrated, and the switch had been out of service for quite some time. Now I can use the spur again. You can see the carcass of the old toggle in the foreground:

Finally, here's the block panel whose lower diagram formerly controlled CP Crucero. You can see the hole where the switch toggle has been removed;

Some of the block toggles will be retained, but otherwise at some point, the only use of these panels will be to show the addresses of the switches.