I succeeded in mounting my first five tortises switch machines. The work nice, but they took hours to get mounted. There must be easier ways. Who has that figured out?
ARTHILL, Some tricks to use in mounting your Torti…
- Do as much as you can before you try to put in under the layout. You did not say how your layout is built, so you should know there are several ways they can be mounted depending on what you are mounting them to. Mine are mounted to the plywood base so I place the machine onto a thin piece of pine (1/4 in. Plywood would work and several people use PC board).
I do all the soldering and wire it to terminal barrior strips before installing it on the layout. Keep the wiring labeled. It is much easier to attach wires to the Barrior Strips them solder them under the layout to the Tortiose.
- I am using DCC and want to power the frogs. I use both sets of switches in the machines in parallel to power the frogs. Mine have not been hooked up yet but you can see where they will attach.
- The 4’ by 4’ pine base is easily screwed onto the plywood underlayment and can be adjusted before tightening down. (use one screw, adjust the Tortiose, then screw in the others)
Hope this is of help to you.
Nice work Ray! Now you have me rethinking the process I’m going to use to mount them. Beats working upside down for several hours.
Good suggestions. I have 7 to go. That will make it easier.