The underside of board 4: the pont motors are wired into channels along the edges of the baseboard using standard computer 'D' connectors. The sockets are screwed to two pieces of timber which also have the additional use of forming cable trays which help keep everything nice and tidy.

What it looks like under the Benchwork

I have now installed the Peco point motors to one of the two throats to the staging yard.

I can now report my first major mistake - I think I might have made a mistake in going with the Peco point motors.

The double pole electrical switches are so fiddly. I've purchased a number of them now though so I will persevere but I can easily see myself replacing them, as and when they burnout, with Tortoise stall type motors (with integral switches). This means that I will have to purchase DCC accessory decoders capable of being programmed to control solenoids and / or stall type machines.

The PECO electrical switches are ever so fiddly, take ages to wire up, take even longer to adjust (so that they actually work - actually to be fair, they don't take too long - but it is an additional job that is so boring) and the centre connections for each pole are extremely fragile. The PECO option is also extremely expensive when one takes into account the cost of the motor combined with the cost of the electrical switches.

The other problem that I have encountered is that the springing mechanism on one of the Peco turnouts is not strong enough to make a reliable electrical contact between the switch blades and the stock rail (thereby energising the electro frog). I've made the necessary adjustment(s) now but it does show that the decision to ptovide additional switching of the frog polarities might prove very useful at exhibitions.