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model scale railroad houses to construct ho scale n scale oo gauge

Switch From Track A to Track B

Charles wants help from any reader who knows about switches and asks:

“I have an inner (track A) and outer (track B) of O gauge track. They are connected by a pair of right handed switches connected to each other. With separate power to each track the object is to allow the train on the inner circle to switch to the outer circle. I am having trouble with how to pin the switches to get the train from track A to switch to track B.”

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One Response to Switch From Track A to Track B

  • Geof says:

    Charles,

    I’m not familiar with wiring three rail O gauge so I won’t offer a ‘fix’ though it’s not clear to me why you need two power supplies to run one train. If its wired correctly, one power supply should suffice even with inner and outer loops.

    Anyway, as far as your switches are concerned, you should wire them so that each side of the switch machines themselves are connected with the same power leads (+ and -) but using only ONE switch controller. This way, when you ‘throw’ the switch machine controller, both switches will be aligned at the same time to allow the crossover function you described by only using one switch machine control. When you throw the controller to the other position, the switches will both be aligned to allow passage over each of the loops, again by only using one controller (and saving you a little money).

    Hope this helps,

    Geof

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