need help..wiring a layout for my little boy...this is probably basic...but.... need help..
DC... have a siding..... all I want to do is be able to turn a section off of track for him to park an engine
have a switch coming off mainline... then its a straight shot to a bumper... have a piece of flex trac
cut to the bumper..also have insulated rail joiners, an atlas switch..which has 3 on off switches...(was going to make 3 places where he could park and turn off engines...)..also have packs of terminal wires to hook up between tracks...... how do ya wire it.....
would 2 wires(terminal rail joiner with wires from each running to the switch...and then 2 wires running into the power pac work... or would that turn off the whole track?
rookieho - Welcome to Trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Most track switches do not route power only to the aligned track. Both Tracks remain powered.
You need to get insulated (plastic) rail joiners to isolate segment of railroad. If it is a siding ending at a bumper, you only need one such joint. If you have a pocket which rejoins the main line, you will need two insulated joints to isolate a section of track .
Now that it is isolated, you need to send power to it when you want to move the engine, thus you need an on-off switch of some sort and a connection to the track.
Are you using a track with screw terminals? If so you need another one, or else you can get rail joiners with a wire attached to them.
Naturally accomplished modelers do not bother with plastic rail joiners but simply cut the rail with a motor tool to create a gap, and then simply solder wires where they want them.
For the boy, I would use a big old knife switch to control the power to the siding. He can easily see if it is opened or closed, and it helps teach him the principals of electronics. Since it only controls the track power, it is as safe to the touch as the tracks are themselves.
You could use one plastic joiner to isolate the siding and then using two joiners with wires attached connect them to the knife switch, right there by the turnout. This way you will not have to change any of the wires connected to the power supply.
Elias
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
thanks.....
have all the above your talking about......
its a switch with a piece of flex of track directly to lighted bumper....
so... on one rail of flex connected to switch put a insulated rail joiner...other rail the one with the wire...
run the wire to switch and another 2 wires to switch to power pack?? the switch I have is on of those atlas ones...it has 3 yellow on off switches with a 2wire hook up to each switch...
Make a gap on one side of the area you want to isolate. i would gap the rail as close to the beginning of the siding as possible, giving you the ability to back an engine with a few cars on to the siding. Run one wire from your power pack to your three button controller. Make sure that you use the same terminal on the power pack that powers the same side of the layout as the track that has the gap, so you will have two wires coming off that terminal, one to the layout in general,the other to the atlas . run one wire from one of of the yellow slide switches to the track that has the gap in it. slide switch will let you control power to the siding and the rest of the layout is unaffected.
THANKS!!!!!!!! ALOT......
thats what I needed
One thing. With a lighted bumper the light will go off when you kill power to the siding, assuming track power lights the bumper, if you want the light to stay on all the time you will have to make another gap as close to the bumper as possible, on the same rail as you gaped before. then run a wire from the main layout track, anywhere you choose but probably as close to the siding as possible, using the same side of the track as the gaped rail, and attach it to the gaped rail at the bumper. this will give you constant power to the bumper regardless of whether the siding is powered. If the bumper has it's own set of wires for the light and doesn't use track power then all this should be forgotten
Or, as we did back when I was a kid, leave it, so the bumper lights up to serve as an indicator that you turned on power to the track and don;t have the train come to a screeching halt as you head into the siding.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
That works for me Randy