Finishing The Yard Trackage Update

I'm about 95% finished replacing a few of the tracks in Zenith Yard, which had previously been Shinohara Code 70, with code 83 sectional Kato Unitrack. There was nothing wrong with the Shinohara track, and there's a lot of it left both in Zenith Yard and in other spots on the layout, but after converting the rest of the yard to Tortoise switch machines and DCC, I still had three twin-coil switch machines left in the yard, and I wasn't going to be able to do anything with rewiring those without going way under the table, which I'm no longer really able to do. So I left the twin coils in place, pulled out the affected Shinohara switches, and replaced all that track with Unitrack, which meant I could wire the Unitrack switch machines without going under the table.

Here are shots of the latest progress:

Two of the three switches I replaced are #6, using Unitrack #6, which are almost perfectly congruent with the old Shinohara #6. I really thought they, or somnething similar, should be the hobby's wave of the future, since they are mounted on a simulated ballast base, and they have switch machines integral to the switch and invisible under the ballast. The best option for the future would be to include DCC decoders that can be addressable in the whole factory assembly.

However, when I went to order a #4 switch for the engine terminal area, I found Kato has completely changed these, and likely will also change their #6. These now come with an architecture much closer to Atlas Custom Line, with a manual switch machine as the factory option and an electric remote switch machine as an add-on. In addition, instead of being invisible, the add-on electric switch machine is now a somewhat clunky outside item -- just not quite as totally clunky as the Atlas.

I really think this is a step back, but almost certainly I won't be undertaking a new larger size layout in my lifetime. Up to now, I sort of thought that in the unlikely event I ever did, I'd think very hard about using Unitrack, but Kato Unitrack doesn't look like it's going to go the way I sort of think a new generation of track will go, with both switch machine and decoder integral to the switch under a simulated ballast base. But that's no matter to me, I'm grateful for what I've been able to do.

Next step will be restoring the scenery that's been torn out, adding a few new structures to the yard area, and disguising the Unitrack plastic look.