John,
Thank you!! I'm glad you have made much progress on the basement. I'm sure your wife is happy with the completed side. I know, it is hard for me to get thoughts together as to what to put on the layout and how to arrange the track and scenery. I'm glad folks here on this forum helped with ideas and track planning.
Most of my switches will be close to the edge as I was just going to throw them manually with Caboose Industries throws. I have a couple, and they work well. I have some DZ1000 electrical throws I will use the switch that comes with them mounted out front near the switch itself. Nothing very fancy or complicated. I was not planning to have any block detection or signals. Again, I want to keep it simple, and with my fairly simple track plan I think it will be fine. I would rather spend my time on scenery and buildings.
We had a nice Memorial Day. There was no parade of course, but they flew a C17 from the 911 Airborne over Butler VA Hospital and Butler Memorial Hospital, then they were off to a number of other hospitals. We got to see that from our backyard as it was on it's way between the two. We picked up KFC and met both daughters and sons-in-law at my mother-in-law's house for a short get together. Later, I heard someone a way off playing a bugle. It was very touching, I thought.
