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Confused With Track Wiring?
Bill operates N gauge and is confused with wiring requirements. He asks readers:
“I am just building a two mainline track with two side tracks going to separate buildings and terminating at each. There are two points wired, but but they seem to operate the track… in other words when a train passes one point, I have to switch the other point to keep the train moving. This is possibly simple to some? Who knows? Can you help please?”
8 Responses to Confused With Track Wiring?
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Try using electric point clips, they are available in HO but I don’t know about N scale.
Lyn Westcott’s book has the answer., but from memory, when two sets of points are connected to each other as described, the point rail of the first receives and delivers power to the second set only when the route is set. To get around this all track pieces need to have feeders on all rails to ensure continuity. My memory is vague, but Lyn’s book does have the answer.
Bill,
Sounds like you may have directional power switches where the power only flows to the track you have the switch thrown to. The track should be dead when the switch is thrown away from that track. Some brands of switches do that. In some ways that is a good concept such as a dead end siding. Where wiring the siding may not be necessary as power will flow through the switch in the direction it is turned. So the only time you will not have power is when the switch is turned that way.
Know that said, I have several Shanahira Switches (sorry for the spelling) and I use them on each end of a flow through switch yard. When the switch is thrown as I said above, it is fine but when it is switched away from the said track the power switches rails and therefore can cause a short. So I feed that switch with enough track past the switch to flow the power the proper way but I double insulate the rails using insulated rail joiners on both rails. Each switch on both ends of the yard are done the same way. Your tracks in the yards should be insulated in both directions and so follow the power wires (Buss Wires) from the track power before the switch and then tie in the tracks in between the the switches and their rail insulators. Now all you have is power follows the rails in the direction of the switch but with it switched away from that track there is no short . The one thing you have to watch is crossing those insulators with the switch turned away from your track. If the engine is sitting completely on the switch side of the insulators and the switch is turned away from that track there is no short and you only have one side of the power to both rails of the engine. Without both side of your power not there for your engine it will sit there with no power on it. You throw the switch and the engine now has power as you now have from both sides of the circuit. Take an ohm meter and follow the rails as the switch is turned in that direction and then when the switch is turned away from the track. You will see the rail on the frog side rail switches from one rail power to the other. That is why they work ok on dead end siding but where there is power coming from the other end of the rail they .will work differently.
Now if this would be a switch track from one main line to the other and say both are powered from the same power source, If one is powered in the other direction there is another situation .
For instance…… I run 2 tracks in parallel next to each other. It is the return track from the same track but the rail power is reversed since the track has turned around and running the other way.. If I want to switch across to the other track to pull next to a station platform the rails between the 2 switches are double insulated to prevent a short. So the section along the station I will use a double pole double throw switch and reverse the polarity along the station track. This will be from the switch on each end of this section and the outgoing rails on past both switches are double insulated along with the rails between the switches that cross over from the other track. Once you cross back to the normal track for that direction you can throw the double pole double throw switch back and your power will flow now back into the normal direction. Not sure of your situation but these are a few possibilities that you might be working on your layout.
from Newman Atkinson
Great stuff Newman. A pretty comprehensive answer. In place of the double pole switch, but making that part of the layout automatically controlledt,you could install a Bachmann, Gaugemaster or Hornby Automatic Reverse Loop Module. It is more expensive than the switch, but if trains always enter a loop on the same point fork, you will only need to set the direction once, and the module does the rest. This does mean that with sprung frogs, the points also only have to be set once.
Thanks John,
I will keep that in mind and your right Once it is in it can simplify the polarity change. Farther down the these two tracks. They will also enter a gauntlet to cross a single track bridge. These 2 tracks actually will enter a Peninsula section and do a turn-a-round to come back on the other track. To eliminate extra bridges I have planned in a gauntlet which actually crosses one rail into the other track with a frog but never switches into the other track. This is something that had sometimes been done when there was only a single track like through a tunnel or bridge but they didn’t want to commit to a full pair of switches. (Kind of like a squeeze play). I have seen a couple of Railroad weigh scales modeled with this but several suggested this for adding more operations and most modelers have not tried it on a main line. Reducing bridges in the area I have planned is one of the goals. With the other level also coming on to the Peninsula also with double tracks it would have required 4 single track or 2 double track bridges to get to the peninsula and that would have crowded the scenery. So I probably will start with the double pole double throw switch but will most likely do something like you suggested later. Thanks for the suggestion
from Newman Atkinson.
If you could post a simple diagram of your layout and where the power feeds are located would help with understanding your problem. Just changing the position of the power feed could possibly solve your problem.
Robert Sounds like a good idea as what we think he is doing might not be what we are thinking. from Newman
I bought a Bachman. Point to point track set. I have it set up in a straight line. Trolley goes to one end. Pauses like it should and stops it won’t return. My local train store is not sure. Bachman. Doesn’t get back to me any online vids just show unboxing and running nothing with a step by step set up for a beginner like me or no vids with solutions to problems. Would really like some help