There’s a joke in the model railway world that a layout is never finished. Modellers always find something else to do. Perhaps I should have thought of this when I said in a recent blog that the electrics on Thomas and Sons were complete. A few days after writing the blog, I thought of something else to do.

I’d intended to have a separate control panel for the switches that control the point motors. Then I realised that if I built them into the baseboard it would be tidier and make the layout easier to operate.

So…. I mounted the push to make switches onto a piece of plywood, drilled three 32mm (1¼ inch) diameter holes in the side of the baseboard, and positioned the switches behind the holes.

Finally, I connected the switches to the point motors via a ‘Plug and Socket Connector’ (the blue wires in the photo below).

To operate a point motor you press the appropriate switch on the side of the baseboard.

Simple!