I have had some problems with my latest layout project. Bob, I can relate to your woes. 
I decided to add a long siding in front of the lower mainline to take the place of the one I had to take out to put in my little yard to the right. I had an extra GarGraves 042 left hand switch, and it cut right into the mainline great. It kills me that the instructions say that they don't come prewired after some date in 2006, and the instructions don't tell me what to add. 
I had made a bunch of connections to where I thought I had it ready to go. When I powered it up, I saw I was still missing some connections in the frog. I had also noticed that the plastic frog was too high, and thought that was messing with things, so I ground it down with the two-speed Dremel I bought 35 years ago. That thing is a lot harder to control than it was years ago. Couldn't be anything wrong with me!! So, there are some gouges where I didn't want them. 
Finally, the Dremel sanding tool quit turning though the motor was running. I thought the tool had gotten lose in the chuck. After fiddling I realized, the shaft won't turn at all. Getting back to the wiring, I had a bunch of holes drilled in it, and it was all screwed down. I thought I would try to alleviate the problem in place. Don't even ask what I was connecting; I want to forget the whole thing. My 10-15-watt soldering pencil couldn't heat it up enough, so I got out the 35-watt soldering gun. I wasn't getting good heat transfer, but the iron was tinned and tight. Finally it slipped, and I melted a big hole in the switch. There is something wrong with that soldering gun, but I guess it isn't a crime, it must be 50 years old, since I bought it when I was in high school to build my first layout. So, I was so tired of it, this evening, I took the switch out, replaced it with the piece of track I had cut out and ran a train around and around. I resolved, I am going to buy a Ross-ready 042 left hand switch at McCormick Hardware in nearby Zelienople and forget about the GarGraves. This is supposed to be a hobby! 
