Drilling holes for the throw bar

I thought i would give a quick how to on drilling the holes for the throw bar wire for the turnouts. I plan to use servo motors to move the the turnout blades. This is done by mounting the servo under the layout with a strong wire coming up through the baseboard and foam and than connecting to the throw bar of turnout.  I good example of this is on the Tam Valley depot website. When it comes to installing the servos i will do a full how to but for now its important to drill the holes before the turnout is laid on the layout.

Its really easy to do but you do have to be careful when drilling through the foam as its really easy for the drill bit to move about. Down below are the steps.

1. Mark were to drill, you need to drill in the centre of the turnout where the throw bar is.
2. Drill a 3.5mm pilot hole slowly. Its good to set the drill on a slow speed. Drill all the way through the foam and baseboard.
3. Drill the final hole of 6.5mm. Once again drill slowly and be careful when the drill bit graps the baseboard, it can pull down on the drill.
4. Clean up the hole.

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When i was laying the sleepers for the turnout i left out the sleepers near the hole as this made drilling easier. You can see in the final photo that one of the sleepers nearly covers the hole that was drilled. There is a space left for a PC sleeper to go in when the turnout is laid. I may also insert a brass tube a later date but this can be done from under the layout.

Ive also be busy forming the landscape which is making the layout look really nice. It adds so much by having hills and valleys. I will share all this in another post very soon.