I am in the early planning stages of my trackplan and have these 3-way turnouts I'd like to use to save space. I plan to operate them manually, but the instructions say I still need a PL-13 switch. Does that mean that I have to operate an electrical switch as well as manually operate the turnout?
Second question is that they referr to the included sleeve material. There is nothing but the turnout with wires attached and an additional roll of wire. Suggestions for a replacement sleeve material, should i decide to use these turnouts?
Like I said, it's the early planning stages, but no sense in planning to use something which I later decide is more than I want to tackle.
Thank you,
Richard
I had two of these in my yard to save space. They were replacements for older brass turnouts, so I had already wired the tracks with relays and power that the electrfrogs took care of. I powered these with Peco switch machines just to move the points. I had no additional wiring besides the pre-existing relays. The relays should not be necessary if the turnouts only feed stub-end sidings.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The 3-way has springs just like a regular Peco turnout, the can be operated by hand. Nothing wroing with putting insulated joiners on the diverging routes and then appling feeders further down the line.
The turnout will be more reliable if you make the modifications per the Wiring for DCC site and power the frogs, but they will work out of the package.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker Nothing wroing with putting insulated joiners on the diverging routes and then appling feeders further down the line.
I was under the impression that when using power routing turnouts in DCC, that this was pretty much mandatory.
Install insulators right at the turnout on the diverging tracks, and add power feeders to both routes.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Well, pretty much anywhere, DC or DCC, unless it's in a yard. Even on DC I doubt you want to kill the entire main past the frog of a turnout. Kill the siding maybe. You don't want all the power for the layout past a certain point going through the point contact of one measly turnout set in said main.
LastspikemikePower routing turnouts do not need to be insulated if they dead end on both diverging routes.
If not, then everytimg you throw the switch you need to wait for the locomotive to go through its start-up sequence.
Not the best situation, and it will become annoying.
We went through this on a lot of layouts as they transitioned to DCC control in the 1990s and 2000s.
Thank you all for your respoonses. My son helped me do some work on the trainroom itself last night, so didn't have time to respond.
Let's see if I got this right.
If i insulate all three routes and power the rails beyond with seperate feeders, it should work without shorting.
If I use two face to face (3 track end to 3 track end) there would be a short, since manually turning them I would not be turning then at the same time.
I'd like to leave the wires long enough so if in the future I (or someone else) wanted to power them, how long ahould I leave the wire and does it need to be shielded?
Thanks again for the help,
Maybe if they don't have sound - but real locos don't shut off and go silent when sitting parked on a siding - at least not until the most modern diesels. Even steam locos, unless the fires are completely dropped because the loco needs service.
LastspikemikeDon't you want the locomotive to shut down when you throw the switch on a dead end siding? You are parking it.
Just because you throw a turnout to a stub ended siding does not mean you are parking that locomotive.
Power routing turnouts on DCC systems cause non-prototypical excessive start-ups and non-fun delays to play time.
Lastspikemike I frequently pass by two of our major railroad main yards where numerous silent locomotives sit on their sidings. Every day. All day. A locomotive not in use will be shut down, protypically.
I frequently pass by two of our major railroad main yards where numerous silent locomotives sit on their sidings. Every day. All day.
A locomotive not in use will be shut down, protypically.
Yes - modern ones. It's part of one of the Tiers of emissions requirements, of which I am sure there is an equivalent if not stricter standard North of the border. It's entirely automatic on newer locos, and the system can even start it back up periodically if the temperature is low, because with hundreds of gallons of colling water per loco, they tend not to bother with antifreeze.
But I model the 50's, so unless the crew was going off duty and no one was scheduled to use the loco until the next day, and it was warm enough overnight, they left it running and just took the reverser handle. On cold Winter nights, even if the loco was sitting there for 12 hours, it was left idling so the radiator wouldn't freeze up (or the block). Even under ideal conditions, warm weather and all - there was always a chance with older batteries that the thing wouldn't start up the next day, and you can't just pull a convenient car over and jump a loco. Worse would be the air start Alcos, if the air all leaked down, then you're really stuck. Air start semis sometimes had a hand pump, but I don't think that would be too practical for the volume of air needed to spin a loco prime mover. Modern battery technology, plus the requirements where every milligram of particulate emission counts, have made the modern auto-start systems worthwhile and pretty much required.