Arnie, quite simple. The insulated outside rail is made by using plastic track pins on one side of the outer rails. Also, you have to insulate the rail by using something like card stock between the rail and the metal RR tie. to do this, carefully bend the tab that holds the rail in place back, insert the cardstock around the bottom of the rail where it would normally contact the tie, and then push the tabs back in to hold the rail with insulating cardstock in place. Next, if you are handy with a soldering iron, you can solder wire right to the bottom of the rail. If not, you could use a regular track clip on connector and then hook the wire from the outside rail clip to the accessory as shown in the article.
Good luck,
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Arnie, one outside rail is insulated from the other, allowing the wheelsets of the train to bridge a source of ground/common rail current over from the live outside rail to the insulated one, & on to an accessory which has high-side / fixed current supplied to it and missing only the ground/common connection. Picture the wheelsets as acting as a simple knife switch to turn on your connected accessory. The center rail is not compromised, the loco(s) will not stall. The length of the insulate section(s) can be extended indefinately.Lionel has done a pretty good job describing the use of insulated rails here:http://www.lionel.com/media/servicedocuments/71-2840-250.pdf
Rob
It's easier to illustrate than explain, so refer to the figures I've attached. However, I would strongly recommend going to the library to check out or buy one of the many "wiring your layout" guides. There are other ways of controlling your accessories, but to stay on point, your train wheels and center pickup roller complete the circuit (see first figure below). So your insulated track section still has the "power" side of the circuit running through it. The difference is when the wheels contact the insulated rail, the train completes the circuit following the pathway illustrated below. So, two ways you can hook-up your Gateman are shown below as well. Version 1 was the way my grandpa showed me, so I call it the "original" way. Its very easy and involves very little wire. Simply attach your power and ground wire from your Gateman to the track using a lockon. Make sure that the insulated outside rail is what you connect the lockon to. Now, this setup allows the Gateman to only come out when the engine is on this section of track. A negative on this setup is that speed matters. Too slow and it may not operate well. Too fast, and your Gateman will jump out for only a second. I like this setup (probably because its my Grandpa's way of doing it), but a second simple way is to hook the power wire of your Gateman to your accessory pole of your transformer. However, the ground between your accessory (or fixed) pole needs to be the same for the throttle pole (or variable). Using this setup keeps a constant voltage on the Gateman so speed doesn't matter anymore. Hope this helps get you started and again, I would recommend reading some reference material so you don't harm your train or Gateman. Take care.
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