Ground throws for Mohawk Paper

The area featuring the Mohawk Paper Company (Cohoes) had three switches along the backside of the layout which were elevated from the front area. That meant that any ground throw control wires had to somehow gain elevation to activate them. I intended to control them with the same 0.025" (#500) steel piano wire and 1/32" brass tubing (#1144) that I had used elsewhere but the hobby store was out of stock of the brass tube. So, I settled for something larger in diameter. In retrospect, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the required kinks and bends in the tube would have easily bound up the piano wire had I used the smaller tube but the larger stuff posed no such problems.

Bending the tube wasn't scientific but I did try and avoid really sharp breaks. For the area on the right side of the layout, the tube will eventually be buried in scenery and the road so I didn't mind laying it directly on top of the ceiling tile top. For the area on the left where some sort of structure will go, though, I cut a groove in the ceiling tile with a utility knife and drilled under the track with a drill to allow the tubing to pass through. Seeing how easy this was, I wonder if I should have done this for all three? To give the ground throws a firm foundation to attach to, I carved away more of the ceiling tile and glued in small squares of plywood that I had lying around. Everything was secured with wood glue.

Naturally, I ran out of steel wire the weekend I worked on this so I had to get more. My local hobby shop was out of this size (I had cleaned them out from my last two trips) so the only choice was mail order. And would you believe it cost me nearly $14 to get five tiny pieces of wire sent to my house when the local store normally has them for a quarter each. Grrr. Shipping... it will get you every time. The last one I installed was for the switch that controlled the siding to Mohawk Paper. When I replaced this switch in May of 2018 I was still using Tortoise switch machines so I trimmed off the throwbar on either side. Unfortunately, that meant that to control it now with a ground throw I had to run the wire between the headblock ties and bend the control wire to go into the center of the throw rod. Not the end of the world, but I would preferred all my installations to be the same. I ran the brass tubing all the way to the underside of the turnout too.

Once the glue is dry, some brown paint will blend them into the landscape.