RailPro User Group
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: faithie999 on February 11, 2021, 05:23:00 PM
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I had never bought a Tortoise machine because of the high price (I'm painfully cheap). however, I found that ModelTrainStuff.com has 12-packs for about $170. they often have a 10% off coupon code that covered a little more than the shipping. I installed the first 2 today and they work great. I'm glad I bought them.
ken
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Years ago I got insanely lucky. Hobby shop going out of business sold me 72 Tortoises at $9 each. It was their entire inventory of them.
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Last year one of our club member and myself were checking out the many boxes under the club layout. I found about 10 or so of them with attached hardware/brackets. Our club had no need for them so I am the proud owner now. I never got around of using any of them but I might find a use someday? I actually like old twin coil switch motors on the top of my layout. Just too old to get under the layout !!!!! Oh the pain just thinking about going under.. :-\ TOF in Yuma
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I have 20 of them on my HOn3 layout, all work great and no problems to date. I did have to use some of the Tortoise mounting brackets where I could not mount the switch machine directly under the turnout, they do come with the mounting bracket for the machine and a special bracket that mounts under the turnout for operation of the turnout. I did use model airplane servo tubes to run the cables in to a remote location, works great, just takes a little adjusting to get the cable centered to the turnout and the switch machine. Personally I don't care for the snap type of switch machine, too hard on the turnouts, especially the more delicate ones used in my HOn3 layout.
trainman