Hi,
Is there anybody that could give me suggestions on how to install
a tortise switch machine sideways. The tortise switch machine won't fit the
conventional way due to L grider. I can't move the switch due to the track
being inline with the L grider.
Thanks,
Chris
I have two-such similar situations on my layout. I made up a brass tube with a stiff music wire extention to pass through and I mounted the Tortoise as usual (rather than horizontal) just a few inches farther from the throw bar of the turnout:
Tortoise_link2 by Edmund, on Flickr
I have a small cast urethane shed that covers the rod and hides it:
Tortoise_link4 by Edmund, on Flickr
Here's the other place where I had to offset the Tortoise a little:
IMG_0228 by Edmund, on Flickr
In the example above, I passed the wire through a length of heat-shrink tubing so it wouldn't possibly short where it passes under the adjoining rails.
There is also a "RemoteTortoise" mount available from Circuitron that may be of help to you.
https://www.dccspecialties.com/products/tortoise/remote-tortoise-mount.htm
http://www.circuitron.com/index_files/ins/800-6100ins.pdf
The Circuitron site was last updated in 2014!
Good Luck, Ed
I also had to offset mount several Tortoises because of benchwork obstructions underneath. I used the same method as Ed where I used a stiff wire inside a brass tube to throw the points. In my case all the obstructed turnouts/tortii were in hidden track locations so they are not as visually 'nice'.
Modeling an HO gauge freelance version of the Union Pacific Oregon Short Line and the Utah Railway around 1957 in a world where Pirates from the Great Salt Lake founded Ogden, UT.
- Photo album of layout construction -
Helpful suggestions everyone!
Check out how the tortoise is mounted in this video:
https://www.facebook.com/2276617392355483/posts/2575253779158508?sfns=nwmo
WOW Mel, I may have to come back to you for a few more details of the turnout control. I have a particular spot that I need to control 4 turnouts at a time.
I was having some concerns about those 2 tracks at the upper deck level,...because I wanted to locate a modified double-cross over arrangement there. So I did a little mock up using 3 med radius Pecos and 1 dbl-curve Peco. Since I had not yet sliced the 3” box beams in half, I used some other slightly wider width alum channels I had for this image. But the basic idea is there. The 2 box beams are on the left, ...and when cut down will provide 2 channels like those shown on the right. The upright 'web' between the two channels will be shaved down where needed for the 'crossover track piece'.http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/274155.aspx
So I did a little mock up using 3 med radius Pecos and 1 dbl-curve Peco. Since I had not yet sliced the 3” box beams in half, I used some other slightly wider width alum channels I had for this image. But the basic idea is there.
The 2 box beams are on the left, ...and when cut down will provide 2 channels like those shown on the right. The upright 'web' between the two channels will be shaved down where needed for the 'crossover track piece'.http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/274155.aspx
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
you can use a linkage that rotates and mount the tortoise some dsitance from a pivot on the bottom of the linkage. The linkage can attach to the the throwbar either between or outside the rails. the bottom of the linkage is attached directly to the tortise
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Circuitron makes a remote side mount for the Tortise machine.....
https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/search?search_query_adv=tortise+remote+mount#/q:tortoise$2520remote$2520mount
Sheldon
railandsail WOW Mel, I may have to come back to you for a few more details of the turnout control. I have a particular spot that I need to control 4 turnouts at a time.
Mel, are you speaking about an electronic board like one of these?https://www.ebay.com/i/192353740672?chn=ps
I'm a real idiot when it comes to these electronics.
railandsail Mel, are you speaking about an electronic board like one of these?https://www.ebay.com/i/192353740672?chn=ps I'm a real idiot when it comes to these electronics.
Mel, you're just trying to drive them too far. If you're using the Servo library, instead of going all the way to 0, go no lower than 10, and don't go all the way to 180, try 170 as a max. Not all servos can actually turn a full 180 degrees. ANd if your linkage allows even lesser travel, you have to further restrict the range passed to the Servo library.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
You need an over-center type of mechanism. If you look at the mounts that Tam valley sells - notice the have a little hole in them where it mounts to the layout, that reverse the direction of the swing - so servo to the right puts the points to the left. Don;t use overly stiff wire, there's no need (and I never found a need to use anything more than .032 even going through TWO layers of 2" foam, plus cork roadbed. Plenty of spring tension holding the points over, without the servos humming away. Plus if you go over center - in my controller, it actually disconnects the servo once end of travel is reached. With the link wire being over center, it takes a lot of force to make it turn the servo if trying to push it from the turnout side of things, so I have no fear that the points will drift away from the stock rail.
If there is even any bend to the wire, it should hold just fine. Before I cut the excess wire off mine on my last layout, I had maybe 4-6 inches of extra wire sticking up out of the throwbar. I could pull on the far end enough to move the points the oposite way they were set, with the servo controllers actually powered off, and it wouldn't make the servo move back from where it was holding, and if I let go the points would snap back with quite a click. With a thinner roadbed, such as my next layout which will go back to more traditional methods like 3/4: ply and Cascade's milled homasote roadbed, since the length of the wire will be that much shorter, I will be using thinner stuff. i think the .032 will be too stiff in that short a length. Though I do have one where I stuck the servo to the bottom of a Peco turnout (spring still in) with double sides tape, about where the peco motors would clip on. I forget what size wire it has, but I think it's one I took off the old layout before I scrapped it, which makes it .032, and it goes the full range I have set in my code, something more than 90 degrees but less than 180, and doesn;t jam up, it makes it to the commanded point and doesn;t keep buzzing - and then I cut the signal on top of that. But it's in one of the mounts with a small fulcrim hole, mine are the older ones that Motrak used to make for Tam Valley. Current draw of my whole circuit witht he servos not moving, but with one or two relays pulled in, plus the LEDs, is pretty low. However, if I physcally try to restrain one of the servos I can get my power supply to indicate over 1 amp. My first test I think I set it to 30ma, and even with the servos doing no actual work, it would go to current limiting, so I cranked it up to 100ma, and it worked but if I rapidly hit the buttons and made the servo keep changing directions while in motion, it would spike into current limiting stiull. 500ma and it never limited - until I tries to restrain one of the servos. Those SG90 servos cna take quite a beating. Leaving them stalled and buzzing though, will be bad. Stable state of the circuit with everything settled is under 50ma, and the servos aren;t drawing much, with the drive signal actually disconnected (with the detatch() command from the library). I'll have to get some pictures of what I have on my bench. The real thing should actually draw slightly less - the breadboard version is using a Nano, so there are regulators and USB chips being powered and drawing power that won;t be in the real version with just the Atmega 328 chip.
I just never did like the basic idea of these 'stall motors' always being on.
I like the good old Peco spring affair. So I may look around for a bell-crank system I can power 4 Pecos with on CD unit.
I did this once a number of years ago on a double crossover (not Peco) with a single solenoid type, but I'm not sure if I remember exactly how I did it.
RR_Mel I used nylon bellcranks for my under layout double crossover with a single Tortoise to drive all four sets of points. I used some Plexiglas as a ridged support for the bellcranks. I tapped the holes in the bellcranks with a 4-40 tap for added support to the turnout throw arms. I used 4-40 nylon screws in the bellcranks. I drilled a .019 lengthwise and inserted .02” piano wire as throw arms. That worked out nicely. The weirdo mechanism hasn’t given me any problems since it was installed in 2012. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I rather liked this idea Mel
I've done side mount conversions on two Torties based on an article in the June '17 MR, page 56. Basically it involves glueing 4 (.060") styrene mounting tabs (each drilled for a screw hole) on the side opposite the throw arm side - this becomes the "new top". Then adding a second styrene fulcrum on the original top of the Tortoise with a 1/16" hole in line with the seam. The music wire (.032") goes from the throw arm (drilled with a no. 66 bit to accommodate the thicker wire), through the original green fulcrum, does a 90 degree bend to go through the second fulcrum, and up through the subroadbed to the turnout throwbar.
(Does the adage "One picture is worth a thousand words" come to mind?)
I've also mounted Torties remotely using plastic RC aircraft style control line. This method delivers more torque than the side mount, so its preferable if the subject turnout is a bit stiff.
Jim
And, as I posted above, Circuitron makes a side mount with a cable drive for the Tortoise. And they sell the cable drive/link separate so that two turnouts can be driven off the same machine.
Even with a double crossover, I prefer to only drive them in pairs since my signal and CTC logic is linked to each clear "route".
The Pacific Southern RR club uses a single Tortise to control pairs of turnouts in yards using the linkage i described above. In these cases, there is an intermediate turnout that routes to only one of the turnouts controlled by the one tortise (saves $$)
The throwbar linkage allows the tortise to be distance from the turnout and at any angle. The throwbar linkage can be some distance from the turnout as well.