I have mentioned my preference for mounting all of my electricals along the fascia line, including switch machines. The project I have just completed flies in the face of that standard. All of the switch machines are mounted on the underside of the sub-roadbed, between closely-spaced steel stud frame members. The terminal blocks for said switch machines (all of which have their DPDT contact sets fully utilized) are mounted adjacent to the machines. Ordinarily, the entire installation would have to be made working up from below.
Instead, I loosened four nuts, lifted the entire Mikasa yard throat out of the main layout and carried it to a more convenient workspace. Most of the work was done with the track side down, working down from above with everything clearly visible under adequate light. Being able to work conveniently allowed me to finish the job in much less time, with much less discomfort and with far better quality control than if I had tried to do the same thing with the yard throat in place on the layout.
So, now, do I have a need to connect 24 wires to the fixed layout? Not really. There’s a 25-connection miniature socket mounted on one corner of the detached module. The matching plug is already in place on the fixed layout. When I return the throat to it’s proper place tomorrow (and release the four trains temporarily marooned on the Mikasa body tracks) I’ll simply connect the two and transfer control to the newly installed Nonomura zone panel. The old, temporary panel, stripped of everything useful, now resides in the recycle bin with the rest of the cardboard boxes.
Progress, it’s wonderful!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - eventually)
