Installing Tortoise switch machines

I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. For many years, I have wanted to own a layout with Tortoise switch machines. I have used Caboose Industries ground throws and Atlas switch machines on my previous layouts, but never Tortoises. Once, I even bought a case of them but abandoned the layout before they were installed. And to me, there is nothing as cool as flipping a toggle switch and having the points move seamlessly. Since I planned from the beginning on powering my frogs, having an easy way to control their polarity was a given. Tortoise machines have contacts for this, as well as additional ones for signalling or indicator lights. They are as bulletproof as it comes, and made in the USA too. While the current trend online is to use servo motors as a cheaper alternative, I am sticking with a proven commodity.

The sides of my benchwork are only 3.5" tall, and Tortoise machines hang 3.25" below the benchwork, so there is a chance that the wires will extend below the benchwork and potentially get snagged. Ron St. Laurent wrote an article in the June 2017 Model Railroader magazine titled "Mount a switch motor horizontally" and when I read it I thought it was a great idea. I bought a Tortoise to experiment with and it does work well (outside the box in the picture at right). However, for now I am just going to mount them vertically as normal. I substituted thicker 0.0312" (1/32) wire that I had on hand for the stock (0.022") wire.

I have learned to tolerate soldering, which is a different perspective from a year ago. Still, each switch machine installation will require 11 different solder connections to be made and I wanted to batch do them for consistency so I drew up a sketch and then laminated it and mounted it on my workbench. Then, wires of the various colors were cut to the length of 12" (probably too long, but cutting them shorter and splicing would be far worse) and the ends were stripped and bent over. I found that the 20 gauge solid wire I used fit perfectly in the holes drilled in the circuit boards on the motors. I soldered the wires hanging down, but I probably should have had them sticking straight out. Oh well. I soldered 50 wires and at least nothing went wrong.

Because installing them can be difficult, I had purchased a tool to aid in their installation and alignment which I was so excited about that I wrote about it here. Unfortunately, because I later planned to install them horizontally I forgot about it. It would have been handy!

To make installation, wiring, and any future maintenance easier, I ran the wires from the DCC bus line, the switch frog, and the power source first to some barrier screw terminal blocks I bought online and cut down to size. All soldering was done at my workbench and I only had to crawl underneath the layout to hook it all up. However, the switch machines still had to be located and then screwed down. Having never done this before, I did what any reasonable person would do... I called my wife for help. I applied a dab of silicon caulk on the top of the switch machine and then I blindly extended it up with control wire through the switch throwbar hole. My wife helped guide me in because I couldn't see where the wire was popping up from beneath the track, and then I moved the wire back and forth until I was happy with the Tortoise's location.

For the remaining 9 motors, I got directly under the hole in the benchwork and eyeballed myself the throw wire into the throwbar hole. Then, I came out from underneath and used my hand to slide the Tortoise forward, back, or side to side until the wire was centered. Note to self: in the future, if you only drill a 3/8" diameter hole make sure the turnout throwbar hole is exactly in the center of it. I made sure that the throwbar was over the hole but sometimes it was close to the edge. Thankfully, the motor is strong enough (and the thicker wire certainly helps) to do its job but for a couple I used an Xacto knife to trim some plywood splinters away from underneath the layout. Finally, I kept my fingers crossed and let the caulk cure for all of them. Some people use velcro or double-sided tape to temporarily hold them, but caulk is easy to peel off if I screw it up.

The next day I used a train set power pack to test each motor, touching the solder pads of Pins #1 and #8 on the Tortoise machines. Each one threw back and forth just fine, and the points were held tight to the stock rails in both directions. It was very reassuring. The caulk is pretty strong and I had a tough time moving the motor when I checked them out, but I may go back and secure them with some screws.

Based on some recommendations online, including Lance Mindheim, I purchased a Parts Express regulated 3-12vDC power supply. It was under $20 online and that seemed like a good price to me. Sure, you can purchase some wall warts and wire them up but I don't mind paying a little bit more for a quality unit that will last for a long time. Tortoise machines don't require the full 12 volts that they are capable of handling, so I will set mine to 9v and let it do its thing a little bit slower.

That hurdle is now over. But, the control wires are sticking up through the track so I still cannot run trains yet. And, I need to install the fascia toggle switches to control them.