Servo's and more Servo's

As much as I want my layout complete, its quite fun building it.  But sometimes, just sometimes I just wish the damn thing was done already !  I have most of the track work complete for the up and down tracks - by that I mean two ways up or down to the main loop.  Final end to end connectivity requires two bridges to be put into place.  Once that's done then I can start running trains and watching them go 'round and 'round without human intervention.  I can also focus on using JMRI  to get the trains running automatically, and someday, intelligently with route decision making etc.

Anyway back to the work for the last week or two.  I think I've mastered Servo installations and my personal technique to get the servo to throw the switch.  The problem is kind of related to the type of movement the servo is designed for - radial (not sure if this is the accurate word, but its a circular motion) while the throw on the switch is linear (back and forth).  Getting the radial movement to translate into the linear is the heart of the problem with servo's, or at least it is for me.  The solution is dirt simple, and there a couple ways to actually do it.  BUT  there are new servo's that are linear geared, and would be perfect for this.  Unfortunately I've already purchased my 50 odd servo's (each is a whopping $2.49), the new ones are 4.29 or so. Anyway, back to the technique.  I use a wire all bent up to reduce the radial movement into as small as possible so it mimics a linear movement.   I'll try to use Google sketchup to do up what the hell I'm talking about.
 

Suffice it to say that my technique works pretty well.  Of course there's always a joker in the crowd so my installations aren't yet flawless.  I've done 14 installations with this new technique and managed 12 of them without any muss or fuss.  2 of them need tweaking which I'll get to when I have some patience to work on it

I've also been installing the Tam Valley QuadPics that control the servo's on the front of my benchwork.  A track plan will cover them with the push buttons controlling the turnouts in that.  Fascia will go above and underneath.  Or so the master plan dictates.

I got really clever in my installation and used old computer motherboard spacers (brass thing in picture below) that screw into the benchwork, and then a screw goes into that to afix the Quad-Pic.

I've got 5 fixed in place currently, another couple are slated to be done this weekend.

I've also begun painting my Atlas bridges.  Finished two of them, working on the third.  They're a snap (haha, literally they snap together with four screws to hold the track and bottom pieces together).  I primed them up and then painted them black.  Added some rust colour and they came out ok I think.