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 I don't use switches at all. I simply set up a schematic on a sheet of acrylic (hardboard will work too) with machine bolts at each switch location. I use a hot probe (I used a 1/4 inch phone plug that I had laying around but any metal thin thing like a nail could be made to work). The probe is attached to the same circuit as the hot (common) line on the turnouts. In operation you just touch the head of the machine screw on the line of track you want to go to. That activates the turnout to move the train to that line. I find that a pair of nuts on the machine screw (its really a fine bolt) will hold bare wire from the switch machine but a crimp on terminal of some sort is a little more elegant. Just as with a switch you only want to touch the head of the machine screw. You can burn out a machine if you hold the probe on the head of the machine screw but the tendency is not to do that. As a Scot by ancestry and nature I find this a much less expensive solution.
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