turnouts

[MisterBeasley]

Assuming you are using simple twin-coil switch motors, like Atlas or Peco:

I went to Home Depot and bought a couple of hundred-foot rolls of 4-conductor telephone cable. It's labelled 2-26, which means 2 pairs of 26-gauge wire. This is cheaper than buying individual single-strand wire, and cheaper than buying 3-conductor cable, too. I only use 3 of the wires, so I've got a spare. If you are using the Atlas controllers, the three terminals on the top of the controller go to the three terminals on the switch machine, in the same order. These cables are color-coded, so it's easy to keep them straight.

Yes, you need one set of wires from your control panel to each turnout. There's just no other way to do it. Yes, you could wire all the center terminals together, but then you have to run a loop around everywhere and it ends up being more complicated than it's worth.

If you are NOT using the Atlas controllers, then you need to wire the two outside terminals from the switch machine to the two outside posts of a SPDT momentary-contact switch. The center post of the switch goes to one side of your power pack, and the center post of the switch machine to the other post of the power pack.

[pcarrell]

We'd love to help, but we'd need a bit more info on what you've got and what you're trying to do with it so that we can guide you correctly.

Are you using DC or DCC for power? Do you have live frogs or dead? Are the frogs isolated? Do you need to throw turnouts in tandem or singally?

These things would affect how you would wire them. If you could provide a little more info I'm sure we can help.

[Anonymous]

what are the best ways to wire a turnout i have 13 to wire