Hi all, question concerning wiring spur tracks. What do yall do for wiring these? Do you wire each turnout for each spur?
Thanks!
Camarokid65Hi all, question concerning wiring spur tracks. What do yall do for wiring these? Do you wire each turnout for each spur?
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I run DCC and my turnouts (Atlas and Walthers DCC friendly) have 6 feeders plus a feeder to the frog. Some (old shinohara, Peco) turnouts are power routing and some or not, so that makes a difference. My experience is that #4 frogs don't need power.
Some people here don't power any of their frogs. Some solder their rail joiners to the turnout and don't add feeders. You don't want to do that on the Peco turnouts that need insulated joiners or their frog rails.
The DC folks get by with very few feeders.
edit I see your other thread is about Digikeijs channel switcher so maybe my answer has nothing to do with the question you were asking here.
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Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps
Sometimes I wire each spur. That's probably the best practice.
A lot of times, I will solder the spur to the turnout. The downfall to this is that if the connectivity of the turnout fails, then the spur won't get power. Also, some do not like to have to unsolder track from a turnout in case they have to remove a failed turnout.
I've never had a problem with either, IIRC.
What I don't do is simply use rail joiners alone for connectivity. They can loosen over time or allow schmutz to get in between them and the rails.
- Douglas
I use Kato Unitrack with the built-in ballast. On an industry spur track, I use their bumper track sections. I drill a small hole in it and run wires to the track and solder them in place. If you're careful, it's fairly unnoticeable. Then I can run the wires down under the layout to connect up to track power. Unless it's a really long spur, that is usually enough. (I also set my turnouts to be non-power routing, so the track on the spur gets power from the mainline all the time too.)
Camarokid65so, basically sounds like run feeders to both the turnout and the spur to better insure power flow?
Rich
Alton Junction
Yes. Feeding the joint of the diverging leg of the turnout where it meets the spur track helps insure power flow towards the spur track and also back to the frog of the turnout.
The latter of which helps to power that small section of turnout track that might not get power if the point rails or under-track linkages aren't what they are supposed to be. (aka turnout failure)
Feeders are cheap and easy to install in the construction phase. Fixing a missing feeder issue once you are up and running trains is much more difficult.
I have never heard anyone say, "I have too many feeders."
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Camarokid65...Do you wire each turnout for each spur?
By a "spur", I'm assuming that you're referring to a dead-end track.
I'm a DC operator, and the only time I'd wire a spur would be if I wanted to control it, using a toggle switch, so that a locomotive could be parked on it. All of my industrial districts' sidings are controlled with double throw/centre-off switches, as there are such tracks on both sides of the mainline which goes through all towns on the layout. Of course, all dead-end tracks in the five staging yards are also individually controlled, each with a simple On/Off switch.
It also occurs to me that the locomotive servicing areas, including the storage tracks off the turntables, are controlled, too. The access tracks are controlled either by double throw/centre-off switches or rotary switches - more areas than I would have thought when first reading your query.
Does that make me a control freak?
If you're using DCC, you can shut down any loco that you don't want moving, without killing the power to that track, but if you want good conductivity with DCC, extra wiring seems to be a requirement.
Wayne
doctorwayne Camarokid65 ...Do you wire each turnout for each spur? By a "spur", I'm assuming that you're referring to a dead-end track. I'm a DC operator, and the only time I'd wire a spur would be if I wanted to control it, using a toggle switch, so that a locomotive could be parked on it. All of my industrial districts' sidings are controlled with double throw/centre-off switches, as there are such tracks on both sides of the mainline which goes through all towns on the layout. Of course, all dead-end tracks in the five staging yards are also individually controlled, each with a simple On/Off switch. It also occurs to me that the locomotive servicing areas, including the storage tracks off the turntables, are controlled, too. The access tracks are controlled either by double throw/centre-off switches or rotary switches - more areas than I would have thought when first reading your query. Does that make me a control freak? If you're using DCC, you can shut down any loco that you don't want moving, without killing the power to that track, but if you want good conductivity with DCC, extra wiring seems to be a requirement. Wayne
Camarokid65 ...Do you wire each turnout for each spur?
doctorwayne Camarokid65 ...Do you wire each turnout for each spur? but if you want good conductivity with DCC, extra wiring seems to be a requirement. Wayne
but if you want good conductivity with DCC, extra wiring seems to be a requirement.
Camarokid65What do yall do for wiring these? Do you wire each turnout for each spur?
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I look at each feeder as an insurance policy. I am well-insured!
You will never regret having installed too many feeders.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Doughless...I don't recall ever having a turnout fail. This time I'll be using far fewer feeders but soldering all joints, including turnouts, leaving the mainline gapped in a few places for any benchwork expansion that might occur. I'm living the wild life, gambling that I will never have to unsolder a turnout and replace it. Livin on the edge.
All of my track, DC, as mentioned, is soldered together, including all turnouts. It's not difficult at all to remove a soldered-in turnout or piece of track.
Simply heat the rail and/or joiners, as you did when doing the soldering, and as soon as the solder has liquified, push the joiner off the joint, so that it's all on the rail to one side of the joint. I use an X-Acto knife with an old #11 blade - use the back-side (non-sharp side) of the tip to push the joiner out of the way.
Once you remove the turnout or section of track, you can re-heat the joiners to take them off the rail, for use later, or leave them in place and insert a new turnout or section of track.
I removed a crossover between two tracks on a curve, when operations made it clear that it wasn't really needed, and that freed-up two Shinohara curved turnouts for use elsewhere. After replacing with track and re-ballasting, you'd never know they had been there.I used the same technique to re-locate a turnout on an industrial siding, in order to create enough space to replace a fairly large structure with an even larger one.
Nuttin' to it!
Agreed Wayne. When we install flex track, the last few ties are removed to accomodate rail joiners, and then replaced loosely for appearence before ballasting. I leave them loose in case I have to remove them.
When unsoldering a turnout, I slide the joiner over to the flex track side, not onto the turnout. In preparation for this possibly, when installing the tracks, I cheat the center of the joiner over to the flex track side as to have less solder on the turnout if I ever replace it.
I have replaced turnouts several times in the past when adjusting my track plan. Not because of failure.