Track and wiring for the new section

The track work and wiring with the exception of the spurs going into the EP Minerals plant are now completed.  As I don't have an exact design for MP Minerals yet, so I am holding off permanently installing its spur tracks for now and just have a single spur loosely tacked down to I can test the operations over the entire area.

I am using the same type of manual push / pull turnout controls that I have used on the Battle Mountain and Carlin sections.  Here is the link to the post detailing how this was done Tracks across Nevada: Hand throws for turnouts. Because of the viewing angle of this section allowing easier viewing of the turnouts, I am not planning to have the indicator LED's on the fascia. 

Because this section was going to be removable, the wiring to the rest of the layout needed to be done like modular layout wiring.  I used an AMP / TE Connectivity 9 pin series 1 connector with the cable feeding through the wall into where the helix is.  This cable is antenna rotor cable with 8 conductors.  This cable and connector type is the standard we use on the modules in the Ntrak club I belong to.  The receptacle on the module was mounted to the same aluminum L channel that was used for the turnout switches. 

One pair of the wires on the cable are used for the DCC power.  Another pair is used for 12 volt DC power, and the 4 remaining wires are spares.  I wanted to give this section it's own DCC district so a locomotive here would not give a red signal on the helix block.  I had an unknown brand of DCC circuit breaker that was part of an estate I purchased a few years ago and it seems to do the job just fine.  Because the deck is only 1/4 inch thick, small 1/4 inch pieces of plywood were glued to mount the components. 

To create the gap between the helix and the new section, I used Kato insulated joiners between the Unitrak expansion track and the Unitrak section on the new section.

So for now, I am going to be running some test operations on this new section to make sure I am happy with this track arrangement and that everything is working OK before starting any ballasting or scenery.