turnout question

[Anonymous]

on most of my old turnouts..they're about 10 years old...they;re from tru track...they will switch one way but not the other...then sometimes they will work with one switch terminal but not the other. then somtimes they will work when im testing them .. then they won't work when i put the onto my layout.are they just old? or what

[dehusman]

By not work, do you mean the points won't line for the different routes or do you mean that one or the other route is electrically dead?
Are they powered or manual?

Dave H.

[ristooch]

It sounds like you are talking about twin-coil operated turnouts, correct? Based on the problem you are having, maybe the wire to one of the coils has broken or otherwise gotten disconnected. Since I'm not sure what scale you modeling, you may be able to reconnect (solder) the wiring back together, if that is indeed the problem. In n-sclae, those coil wires get mighty small and hard to fix!
Perhaps, if you have the funds, you may want to junk the turnouts and buy new ones.
Hope this helps, if not let me know.

[Anonymous]

these switches are manuel...they will flip one way but not the other

[howmus]

4664challenger, you may have a piece of ballast or some other crud stuck where it is preventing the switch from throwing correctly. It also may be that the old manual throws have just worn out. I have had several of the old style (from over 20 years ago) that have worn out over the years and had to be replaced. You may want to try a small amount of dry graphite worked into the manual switch throws as sometimes they just get dry and stick.

Hope you find a cure.