Meanwhile, out in the man-sion...

Well, my excursions yesterday revealed a few things;
-No one seems to stock metal cutting fret saw blades locally (well, of the 2 outlets I tried, I have yet to visit the local hobby shop).
-Who the hell knew that Foxton had a trolley bus museum? It was somewhat of a surprise to drive down the main street and see the overhead wires.

This afternoon I was allowed out in the Man-sion for a bit, and it was time to attack the middle modules wiring. I had picked up some screw tag terminal strips as well as some more switches. It is amazing just how much stuff a layout soaks up without not much seeming to happen. I had to add in all the power feed droppers which gave me a few surprises.

'1/2 way through the process'

I had purchased a roll of enameled wire from Jaycar, and proceeded to cut it into short lengths and solder it into place. Before I flipped the module over I checked that the rails were connected to the bus wires.
Not a flicker.
Heat and more solder did not have any effect short of solder dropping off the joints. I had to scrape some of the enameled paint off to get it to 'stick'.

After these tribulations I finally got everything connected up and was able to drive both Da's along all of the mainline.


I now have to sort out how to wire up the scissors crossover. Its going to be complicated a bit by the manual point throws. I'll just have to sit down one evening and nut it out. I guess I could use the auto-reversing feature on the Digitrax booster, but the question then becomes can I use this feature on the 4 sections it is going to power (Loco, both ends and the center of the crossover) away from the Zephyrs one (main line only).