I have had some requests to include a how to about the operations functions of Easy Model Railroad Inventory. I will be quite honest; I started out developing an inventory program to be used for insurance purposes. You’ll notice the word operation does not appear in the program name. The title is Easy Model Railroad Inventory. Some of you, I have noticed, like to refer to it as EMRI, which I actually find flattering, though I have not gotten used to it yet.

I am confronting wiring up the 40 odd turnouts in my layout and am curious as to the tradeoffs between using frog juicer circuitry to power my frogs or the switched contacts on the turnout motors? I am using both Tortoise motors and Atlas solenoids -- the later on the upper shelf of my layout. Motive power is pretty much all short wheelbase steam, so powered frogs to avoid turnout stalling seems pretty much mandatory. Using the contacts provides deterministic frog polarity where as the frog juicer appears indeterminate as it is driven by short detection.