The (st)art of compromise

 Well it had to happen sooner or later. Regulars will know that I've been mulling this one over for a long time. There have been some boards up with a few bits and pieces on then for a few weeks; just enough stuff to shuffle around and try a few shapes and clearances. I'd pondered a while back about hand-building the track, but a conversation with Miles Bevan pulled me back - his comment was that the original idea was based around the probability of using PECO track, so it would be churlish not to. Point.
There are two thrusts here: 1) most of the foundation work is recycled - that is, the bulk of what you see here is from the 80s blue layout Rhiw which was broken up a year or so ago. The boards have been shorted to a pair of three footers from the 3'7" originals and were cleaned and sanded last weekend. 2) this is most definitely a home layout - it ain't going out. What the exhibition circuit doesn't need is another western branchline. This means I can logically use front operation and keep it all nice and simple. This has already started with the first point down: DPDT slider sunk into the board at the front and connected to the tiebar with a special piece of soft steel wire... a paper clip. Does this work? Of course. Rhiw used exactly the same set-up. If they are this close then the tube bit of the wire-in-tube becomes pointless;a thicker but springy wire does the job.