Power Routing Turnouts

I solved the problem with the 2 power routing turnouts that I reused from a previous, non-DCC layout I had built in the 90s. These turnouts, Shinohara (now Walthers) as I recall, were designed to help traditionally wired DC tracks to route the power to the selected track - either straight or diverging if the turnout was thrown.

Walthers has a good article on the web that shows you need to cut the rails just past the frog to isolate the rails and prevent a short circuit. Two quick cuts with my handy Dremel tool and electrical problem solved!
Unfortunately, I had cut the spur to the LAS Fabrics building so now that short section of track (from the frog to the new cut) is dead but a little work with a soldering should fix that up and then I can put away the electrical tools for some time to come.

One item that really paid off for me, was being extra careful with my wiring. Everything under the layout is red for the north rail (or furthest away from the front of the bench) and black for the south rail. I used 14 gauge bus wiring from one end of the layout to the other and I have several terminal blocks tap into the bus and route the power to tracks in that area using 24 gauge wire - again red and black. Even though I had completed the wiring in January 2007, I was able to quickly and easily add the new feeder wires with no shorts and little hassle.