Cutting in!

Locating and Installing the Turnout Pans

The prospect of nipping the running wire so as to insert a turnout pan is a bit unsettling to me. After all, the mainline is running so beautifully that I would hate to mess it up. But if the layout is going to run as designed, well, I've got to cut in those turnouts. So before I do, I want to be perfectly certain as to where that pan should go exactly.

So I read the Trolleyville Guide to Hanging Simple Overhead very carefully first. Then with a Sharpie I marked the wire where the cut happens: 1/3 the distance between the switch point and the frog. 

In addition to the cut mark, I also marked where the holes in the pan line up with the wire so I know where to bend the wire up so as to maintain the same tension in the overhead. 

Now I have the confidence to...

Snip! Twang! Boing! Cut. Then using the marked locations as a guide I bent the ends of the wires up.

The bent wire ends are threaded up through the holes in the pan and then bent back. I soldered the joints for good electrical continuity. Cleaned it up and ran the cars through. So far so good. One Turnout Pan in, 15 to more to go.
Well that wasn't so bad, was it? Yes sir! That wasn't so bad!

Dandy