The TOMA phase one, Nooksack, is moving backwards rather than forwards. Here in this snapshot from earlier this year, one can see the control panel that operated the turnouts. In real life, the spur and passing tracks would not have been part of an interlocking. The switches would be thrown by the train crew. I feel the need to make a change to better model the railroading/operating process.
Also, we are planning to have some more electrical work done in the basement. To facilitate that I have started packing up rolling stock, locomotives, and structures for safety while work is to be done above the layout. We are hoping to add or replace several circuits. One is specifically for the model railroad's lighting, and others are for the infrastructure of our home. In either case, some existing wiring and fixtures will be removed and/or added over the model railroad. I am hopeful that prepping for and improving the electrical work will inspire additional upgrades of the basement ambiance.
As mentioned above, I recently went down the rabbit hole of questioning why I was using a control panel for Nooksack. I like the touch toggles in the control panel, but it appears to represent the model board of an interlocking. In my operations scheme and limited experience operating on other railroads, using a control panel like this does not realistically duplicate the actions taken by the train crew of a local switching crew. I explored how to use the existing touch toggles to craft homemade individual turnout controls, going so far as collecting water bottles to follow a procedure suggested by Gerry Leone for using the top of the water bottles to create a cup for each location. I realized this method would not work on my thicker fascia, so I turned to Berritt Hill, the makers of touch toggles for their
Mini-Cup Toggles. In my rabbit hole exploration enthusiasm I ordered the parts, but I will need to hold off for now to focus on clearing out all clutter and finalizing the details of our upcoming electrical work.
Not only has work slowed down, it is being undone. The turnout controls will need to be redone to better align with my operations scheme. Not only did I make a mistake with that choice, but the larger mistake (not finishing the layout space prep, before starting the railroad) continues to haunt me.
