I would like to have 2 tains on my track, one sitting on a siding, the other running, what do I have to do to bring one into the siding and move out the train from the siding onto the other track? Any ideas would be helpful.
Thankyou
Chuckshobby
There's an easy way to do that if you have an LGB switch with an electric motor, and one LGB "EPL supplementary switch." I had a setup like that before I went to remote control--a train would be switched into a siding, and when I threw the switch back to the mainline, it would cut power to the siding leaving the train on the siding parked. Then when I threw the switch into the siding, it would power up.
It's explained here: http://www.lgboa.com/data/downloads/00559interim.pdf
I had two LGB switches and a single EPL supplementary switch and it worked very well
You can do it without the EPL switch thingy, but I'm not sure how. You can find the Supplementary switches on ebay and from some retailers
I do that very thing on my layout using a low tech approach I learned in my HO days.
The track closest to the station and the middle track are both part of my outer loop.
The outer rail on each is isolated with insulating rail joiners (Hillman, Split Jaw or Aristos will do the job). There is a separate power feed to each rail that is fed through a SPDT C/O (single pole double throw center off) switch. That enables me to power one passing siding or the other or neither.
More on this at - http://www.nmra.org/beginner/extended.html
-Brian
Chuckshobby --
If you want both trains to be alive on the track with out your intervention to kill the siding via the above mentioned spdt, there are a couple of other vendors ou there that have cost effective solutions for track powered trains. The first is DCC BitSwitch @ www.dccbitswitch.com and the second is Railroad Concepts @ www.rr-concepts.com , both have siding or station type controls that allow you to control switching to have one train stop and another pull out of a siding or station.
Personally I like the RR-Concepts stuff with it's deceleration to a stop, over the DCC Bitswitch unit for analog trackpower. Dcc Bitswitch has a better (read more capable) unit if you have DCC implemented.
The isolating rail clamps and spdt switch are certainly the cheapest solution, but I like to be able to let the trains run and partake of several adult beverages with my friends while charring some pig/cow in the smoker while the trains start and stop and take different routes with out me.
Good luck with what ever you decide to use!!
Mark
The LGB EPL switch I mentioned is close to what Brian described--a double pole switch. Brian's version would be cheaper and maybe more reliable.
The one downside to doing it with the EPL or with a switch as Brian describes is that the train slams to a sudden halt as power cuts out, instead of gradually slowing. You could install a capacitor that would store energy and release it when power was cutoff--giving you a gradual slow down. I've read about it but never done it. The RR-Concepts approach would avoid that whole problem by doing it for you
I do it the same way I used to do it in HO/N/&Z scales. Both the mainline and the siding the rail closest to the "passenger platform" is insulated at the switch (turnout), using Spli Jaw isolaters. The feeder wire for each of these sections is controlled by an LGB 51800 On/Off Control Box
I like the convience of being able to just "push the wire in the hole and tighten the screw", as opposed to doing all the soldering I did in the smaller scales. I have a bank of 51800's for DC track power (sidings, both passing and stub end), and another bank for AC switching for lights and other such goodies that will appear later on. As for the sudden/abrupt stops, I normally leave the power on for every rail, drive the train/trolley into the siding slowing down with the throttle controls. Once I "park" the train/trolley I simply turn off the power to that rail.
Tom Trigg
I use the plastic rail joiners
shouldnt be to hard to wire the track ends to a toggle switch from autozone or radioshack so you could just turn the sidings power on and off.
Also, with the RR-Concepts design, you can have your two trains run in various patterns such as both running on the loop at the same time, with one leapfrogging the other at the siding, or having them take turns running around the loop in the same direction as well as taking turns running around the loop in opposite directions.
To control the fast start/stops, I used a 4 ohm resistor to feed the area where the train stops.
Train will slow down , and then stop. Very effective on my Aristocraft reversiing unit with a 1 foot isolated section powered via a 4 ohm resistor to the main line before the diode section. Resistor is a 5 watt version.
Start is softened a lot with this method. Some have used diodes back to back to give a voltage drop.
Brian Altterrain has provided the simplest and very efficient way of doing this. I have the same arrangement, but with one track of the siding isolated with insulators, and a single power feed to it from the mainline. When I turn the swictch, both rails are powered, and trains can both move on and off the siding at the same time, thereby replacing one train with another. Once one train has replaced the other on the siding, I turn the power off, thereby isolating the train on the siding. I use this method mainly to replace one engine with another.
Paul
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