Newbie question about the Tortoise Machine

[tim1966]

I am reading a book on basic model railroading and there is a section about hiding the switch motors below the layout. The book says that the maximum thickness of the track board and roadbed cannot exceed 1 inch. Even if you only use 1/2 inch plywood for the top of your bench by the time you add an inch of foam and either cork or foam roadbed you will be way over 1 inch in thickness. Am I missing something here or is there a way around that?

Thanks

 

[D&J RailRoad]

You have a good understanding of it. Basically, you're leveraging the throw wire the further the fulcrum bar is from the turnout. If you have a real smooth operating turnout, you can get away with a longer wire. You might consider cutting away the wood and mounting the machine directly to the bottom of the foam.

 

[ianacole]

This month's model railroader had an article on mounting your machines sideways, which eliminates the thickness limitation as you're rotating the throw rod, not moving it back and forth. If you're a subscriber to MRR online there's also an article there on a different approach for using Tortoise machines with 2" thick foam. I'm using 2" thick foam on 3/8" plywood, and I'll probably be using the sideways mounting approach.

 

[tim1966]

Thank-you both for your responses. I just subscribed to MRR so I hope I get that issue discussing the sideways mounting. I will be doing research on this and see what I can come up with. I am doing planning on my first layout so I want to try to eliminate some of the obvious blunders.

Thanks

 

[ianacole]

Here is the link to the online article:

http://mrr.trains.com/en/How%20To/Articles/Controls%20and%20Electrical/2012/06/Easy%20installation%20of%20%20Tortoise%20switch%20machines%20in%202%20foam.aspx

 

[tim1966]

Thanks for that ianacole. I just did some looking around and came across this remote tortoise mount, scroll down the page a little.
http://www.circuitron.com/index_files/Tortoise.htm

This says that the machine can be mounted up to 18" away from the turnout points, that would be great especially if the turnout happens to be right above a support beam on your bench.