I'm looking for ideas on manual turnout control. Here are my requirements:
1) Must be absolutely reliable
2) Must be cheap (because I am)
3) Must be usable from the edge of the layout. I'm clumsy and would rather not reach into the layout more often than I need to.
4) Must be able to operate a switch to power the frog too.
The layout will probably be on a 30" or so side shelf along one wall of a room. I'm going to TRY hand-laying my track. I've read that snap-type turnout motors can cause problems with solder joints on hand-laid track, plus the good ones are expensive (violation of requirement 2) and the cheap ones aren't reliable (requirement 1). Ground throws obviously violate #3. I also don't want the control showing too much from the top, so I want to connect to the throw-bar from below.
Had anyone tried anything like this?
1) Must be absolutely reliable
2) Must be cheap (because I am)
3) Must be usable from the edge of the layout. I'm clumsy and would rather not reach into the layout more often than I need to.
4) Must be able to operate a switch to power the frog too.
The layout will probably be on a 30" or so side shelf along one wall of a room. I'm going to TRY hand-laying my track. I've read that snap-type turnout motors can cause problems with solder joints on hand-laid track, plus the good ones are expensive (violation of requirement 2) and the cheap ones aren't reliable (requirement 1). Ground throws obviously violate #3. I also don't want the control showing too much from the top, so I want to connect to the throw-bar from below.
Had anyone tried anything like this?