Mark Boyce posted:John,
You’re not being a pain at all. This is why I posted it all, for someone else to look it over and see something Dave and I missed. Good catch! I never noticed. Yes I have read of just the problem you mention about the main on the diverging track being the cause of derailments. I’ll look that over for a better way tomorrow.
This is an example of what we run into at work. No one wants to pay for enough engineers and technicians to have “a second set of eyes” look at anything like we did 30, 40, 42 years ago. We end up with egg on our face too often. Here we have the luxury of a dozen set of eyes looking at it!
Thank you!
Mark is exactly right. The point of reviewing designs is defect prevention. The graph below, although specific to software development, is mostly correct for any significantly-sized system - problems found early are easier and less costly to fix.
For example in Panhandle 1.0 had my decision to use 11/32" plywood subroadbed been reviewed by others, it's likely that my poor choice would have been caught. And I would have been spared 5 years of rebuilding the layout.
George
