You ever lose instructions and have to go the long route?

Somehow, either lost, or misplaced. I don't mind doing anything on my layout or equipment, but when it comes to wiring signals with putting infrared detectors (had 2 dead detectors, lucky I bought a pile from the China man), into trackage then wiring signals which have 3 or 4 wires, I wish I remembered were the original instruction ran off and those I made notes on, are playing Hide and Go Seek with me. Its turned into almost a full 6 hours of under the table with OHM meter and testing every wire from sensors to signal to power supply. All I accomplished was installing 3 sets of infrared detectors and wiring 3 signals with the circular Pennsy giving me the most pain, Green was okay, but then when engine entered zone, Green stayed on as well as orange and Red, that took a good hour to swap back and forth until I had wiring correct and also changing wire colors each time so there was a consistency in color coding of wires and documented as well.
All my work is going into a new 3 ring binder as I progress further and for future needs. Recommended.
And to think building a smaller layout with less switches, etc. would be so much simpler. But, today I did run an ABA NYC with 10 18" passenger cars through all the switches and trackage and no problems there.