Well finally this project is complete!
Today I made up four more reeds to go inside old LGB sleepers, which were then placed by the side of the track.
These switch two EPL drives that control the two `waiting load` bulbs on and off. These fool the shuttle modules to think that the train is still running and prevent them from engaging, timing out and reversing, especially whilst one train is waiting for the other train to cross the mainline!
The parts to assemble four of the trackside reeds
![IMG_0699[1].jpg](https://cdn.gscalecentral.net/2015/06/63458_dc0d463f3fe98871345447891a7ab246_thumb.jpg "IMG_0699[1].jpg")
Four of the reeds installed at the track side
I then spent a while experimenting with some little magnets that I bought. I deliberately chose small ones to make them as unintrusive as possible. I chose 5mm cubes with a pull of 1kG!! I tried several arrangements of these, but found that they worked best when three were stacked on top of each other. I have mounted them at both ends each loco used on the branch as redundancy.
Amazingly putting them side by side to give a greater area, reduced their effectiveness!! I have no idea why that is - I must have been off with a cold when we did magnets at school!
Finding exactly where is best to fit them was fun too. One my electrified Playmobil RCE they are on the leading bogie, but on the LGB Steeple Cab and 2060 they can easily be fitted on the sides, although I will need to paint them in due course.
Each loco needs 6 - I only bought 50, so I will clearly need to get some more!
I had the branch running with twin trains all afternoon without issue. I even deliberately set up some snags, which would (and in fact often did) throw the two shuttles out of sync and into chaos before, but the waiting load lamps did exactly what they were intended to do and all was well.
James
![IMG_0699[1].jpg](https://cdn.gscalecentral.net/2015/06/63458_dc0d463f3fe98871345447891a7ab246.jpg "IMG_0699[1].jpg")
