I designed a turnout control circuit cicra 1985 that worked with tortouse units and i believed was based on Forrest Mims’ radio shack booklet on operational amplifiers.
The circuit used two momentary pushbuttons,
#1 provided + voltage to the tortoise
#2 provided - voltage to the tortoise
When used in a yard/lader situtation, the button pushed changed all required turnouts to get in or out of that track to the required direction.
My 30 year old memory, not so good.
I do recall the circuit was simple with few parts.
To operate a Tortoise via two pushbuttons would need something more like a flip-flop than an opamp.
There was one posted here in 2009, uses a 556 timer chip. Unfortunately the OP of that one has not decided to pay for Photobucket so his image links witht he schematic and board layout are all dead.
However - it’s a basic 556 circuit and of course Rob Paisley has the same thing:
Doesn’t get much simpler, a 556 and 2x 10K resistors per switch machine. Push one button, Tortoise moves one way, push the other, it moves the opposite way.
There is more recent circuitry to do what you want to do.
I power my Tortoises from a DC power pack.
I control my passenger station yard ladder with an NCE Mini Panel and a series of momentary push buttons mounted on a control panel.
Each push button controls the entire route (multiple Tortoise controlled turnouts) into a specified station track on the ladder. The Mini Panel is programmed to automatically select the route when a particular momentary button is pushed on the control panel.
