a shelf 2ft x 16ft, along wall and a corner, having both standard gauge and 42 inch (Cape?) gauge tracks... how is it wired in DC?
thanks in advance!
Farouk
don't the two gauges share the same rail (unless it switches sides)? wouldn't the non-shared rails have to be the same polarity?
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Welcome to the best forums on the internet. Your first few posts will be delayed, but stick with it. This community is worth it. I see your ID is years old, but this is your first post. That is quite some time to be lurking. Glad to see you in the daylight.
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The two rails that are closest together get the same wire, the common will be the rail all aone on one side.
Are you handlaying dual guage with 42" and 56 1/2" gauges? You might need to find some nallow rail and prototype thickness wheel treads to make that work.
If you need a transition track, the frogs (not really frogs, but I do not know the right term), will need to be insulated and the two transition rails will be opposite polarity.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Here's a transition track:
I don't see a particular need for any insulation. The top "half" is one polarity; the bottom "half" is the other. Pretty straightforward.
Dual gage looks like it could be both fun and maddening at the same time.
Ed
If you use seperate cabs it will matter. On the left half, the bottom would be the common between the cabs, the standard gauge rail could be + and the narrow gauge - if the trains are going the opposite way. On the right half, if the bottom 2 rails were both still the common, the single common rail would have to be _ and - at the same time.
If there's only one cab at a time that can control the dual gauge, or you are using DCC, it wouldn't matter, on the left the two rails would be the N feeder, the shared rail the S, on the right, the two rails would be the S feeder, the shared top rail the N and away you go.
Where it gets complicated is when you have a narrow gauge line joining to dual gauge as well as crossing it, or when dual guage crosses a standard gauge. Or as I once saw in MR, a dual gauge line with a double slip into a standard gauge or narrow gauge line. Or perhaps that wasn;t MR - I recall seeing this insanely complex trackwork which I think may have been TRIPLE gauge, or else dual gauge where there were 2 rails for each gauge, not a shared rail.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
SeeYou190 Welcome to the best forums on the internet. Your first few posts will be delayed, but stick with it. This community is worth it. I see your ID is years old, but this is your first post. That is quite some time to be lurking. Glad to see you in the daylight. . The two rails that are closest together get the same wire, the common will be the rail all aone on one side. . Are you handlaying dual guage with 42" and 56 1/2" gauges? You might need to find some nallow rail and prototype thickness wheel treads to make that work. . If you need a transition track, the frogs (not really frogs, but I do not know the right term), will need to be insulated and the two transition rails will be opposite polarity. . -Kevin .
Hi, Kevin, many thanks for the welcome and for your time for the reply! Admittedly, I spent quite sometime being a lurker. I've been peeping in still farther back from my ID date with nary a post but to learn from and get inspired by the informative exchanges in this wonderful MR forum. It is hoped that that situation would change.
Now I can proceed with the building of the layout (for myself and a growing-up grand son) guided by your description on wiring the 3 rails in the dual gauge.
I will hand-lay the tracks and scratch-build the turnouts using code 100 tracks/rails for both the 42" and the 56.5" gauges. Though my prototype for the narrower gauge is my country's Philippine National Railway(PNR) which rails are smaller in dimension to standard gauge rail I can live in making use of standard gauge rail and wheels. This allows the layout to accommodate running the prototype (PNR) examples as well as my standard gauge collection of American examples of HO locomotive and rolling stocks. The latters are my base/prime models while. The former are to be scratch-built since no models of in HO or in Gauge are in the market. Brasilian Frateschi's offefings of General Electric's U-15 and U-10B are to OO scale (4mm to the Foot) not HO as per advert but gauged and ran on HO stndrd gauge.
The dual gauge track arrangement will be that the narrow tracks shall be to one side within the standard gauge in the entirety of the layout. On no occasion/part of the layout will switch to the other side. This way the Transition Track(TT) is avoided so do issue you explained regarding TT and illustrated by Ed (7j43k) further by Randy (rrinker). (Please, correct me I'm wrong). I guess shatevef TT may be would be at the entrance to a turntable whefe the 3 rails gransitipns to 4 rails,i.e, with the narrower track coming inside the standard gauge, per my reference, for engine's weight balance needs to cengrally balanced on a turntable (bridge?).
Again, many thanks Kevin.. . ad well as to kind people who came to aid. Best regards.