Ted, I changed the title based on your suggestion. Thank you!
Looking at old pictures of the modular layout, I think I simply got lucky. The ground throws in the yard were all on the divergant side, which means the cars should have hit them, or maybe not. The switches were GG 100 series with straight diverging rails , not curved O-72s. That may have made a difference, as the new layout mostly uses Ross Custom 0-72s with curved diverging rails. The other possibility is that I simply never ran the train through the diverging route. Unfortunately, that's not a possibility with this layout.
I will take a closer look at which switches are likely to see these cars on the new layout, and where the control mechanism is located. Don's suggestion of extending the ties and adding an extension to the linkage may work. If that is not possible, I'll investigate installing a control mechanism underneath. That will be interesting, as I have about 2 -2 1/2" between the top of the ties and the underside of the layout.
Chris
LVHR
