Fireworks are all part of the fun! Seriously though, that's pretty interesting. I got the idea from Thor's website. I found a hand drawing of it.. I guess you might want to make sure you place your metal coupler cars a couple cars before or after the gap to make sure this doesn't happen. Put a couple of trees or scenery at the beginning and end so you know where they are. You should get used to it pretty quickly.
Thanks, Traindaddy.
Wes, I use that relayless method myself; but I avoided mentioning it because of the danger to coupler knuckle springs. It is possible (even likely) that metal couplers will make a connection into the stop or slowdown block by connecting together two trucks on opposite sides of the gap. Most of the time, that path will be through the coupler body, through the hinge pin to the knuckle, then into the mating knuckle, hinge pin, and body. Sooner or later, however, a knuckle will momentarily not connect to the hinge pin and the knuckle spring will carry the current. I can tell you from experience that the spring will either burn out (in a flash of light) or lose its temper. Of course, this is not a problem if you stick to plastic couplers, as I do on the loop where I use this trick.
Bob Nelson
BOB: Every time you answer a question, I learn something. Have you ever considered writing a book? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Have you considered the isolated track method instead? It's the cheapest, easiest, and most reliable. You isolate the outside rail halfway around the track and connect it to another isolated rail on the other said of the layout with a wire. When the train wheel hits the trigger section of track, the ground passes through the axles over to the outside rail, through the wire, and to the other side of the layout, causing the other train to move?
Are you looking for something a bit more advanced? I think if you are going to use relays, you need to built a flipflop circuit with a start and stop trigger section to start and stop power through the relays.
Its simple to buy a single ITAD for $20 (infrared Track Activation Device), feed it with power off of the bridge rectifier, and isolate a couple of feet of center rail connected to the output of the ITAD. Since it has a built in timer circuit, you can set it to flip/flop after a couple of seconds after the train has started. The ITAD is placed in the location that you want the other train to trigger the release of the faster train, or you can bypass the infrared part and just use the relay and timers with a ground throw . Then just make a ground throw section somewhere on the track. The main benifit of this way is that you can put a couple volts on that isolated hot track to keep the train on and making sounds (if your trains have sounds), then the relay just adds enough voltage to release the train. It makes pretty good use of the rectifier strip.
Wes
If you are trying to operate a DC relay on AC, connect the + and - terminals of a bridge rectifier to the coil terminals of the relay; then use the ~ terminals of the bridge rectifier as if they were the coil terminals of an AC relay. The relay coil will see an average voltage that is about 90 percent of the RMS voltage supplied to the rectifier. Test the relay before proceeding.
Connect one of the ~ terminals to the AC supply that you want to use for the relay. Connect the other ~ terminal to the control rail (insulated outside rail. Connect the return of the AC supply to the other outside rails generally. (This will be the common of a multiple-output transformer used to run trains and relay.)
Connect the center rail, except for the slow-down block, to the AC supply that you want to use for the trains. Connect the center rail of the slow-down block to the same supply, but through a voltage-dropping element. You can use a resistor for this; but an element made from several bridge rectifiers works better. To make it, connect the + terminal of each rectifier to the - terminal of the same rectifier. Then connect as many rectifier modules as you need together in series.
Connect the normally-closed contact of the relay across the voltage-dropping element.
Do not use the relay contacts to transfer the center rail of the slow-down block between two transformer outputs set to different voltages.
Throw away your Riddle books.
That is correct. I have a TW transformer that I am using. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
I gather that you're trying to do something like Riddle describes in volume 1, chapter 10 and again in volume 2, chapter 5, that is, run two trains on the same loop without having one run into the other.
I have a post war o-27 layout. The previous posts means that I looked thru the older posts here on the site with relay/rectifier being the search words, as will as connecting, 2 trains/1 track , also checked "entire community" forum. Can't seem to get this working. I had it working w/ the post war mechanical connector hooked up but its too unreliable (the weight of the trains are not always enough to trigger the connector). At this point , after trying several ways connecting the parts, I'm not even sure if the relay and or rectifier is any good.,they got pretty hot at one point.
I've followed the Riddles' book diagram(although he doesn't always make things clear) showing the hook up to stop the following train with the leading train through the isolated rail. So far nothing is working.
Could you give us more details of what you're trying to do? What are the "previous posts"?
OK, I have looked thru the archives,Riddles' book, Toytrain review, etc. I CANNOT get my rectifier/relay to work. Any help would be appreciated. I have the radio shack rectifier and relay as per previous posts and have connected them every which way I can, still with no results. Thank you in advance for any replys.
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