Redo of the test layout

It seems that I took most of the summer off from working on this layout as I have been working on my Japanese modules which will be in a show this weekend, and my wife and I have been doing a bit of traveling.  This fall I will get back to work on the Palisade Canyon layout.

In May of last year in the post Experimenting with reverse loops, I described the shelf layout above my work bench.  That Kato Unitrack layout had been set up to have a dog bone loop with two reverse loops.  It also had an outer loop with a siding and the two loops were connected with a double crossover.

After the electronics for the reverse loops was transferred to the main layout's staging yards the inner loop has not seen much use.  The outer loop is used to test run locomotives and is able to be switched between DC and DCC.

Recently I re-configured the layout and the result is shown here.

The siding was removed from the outer loop and the inner loop now has a 3 track staging yard and no reverse loops.  The two loops are still connected with the double cross over.  The purpose of this setup will be to experiment with some different methods of staging yard control using Micro-controllers and IR detectors to possibly add automation.

Eventually as the main layout works its way around the room, it will displace this temporary layout.  Until then I'll enjoy this small layout.