Power-Routing Turnout, Opinions?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I work in Z scale and I've been talking with a turnout designer in England who is looking to produce Z turnouts. On my website I've sketched what I think is a reasonably simple design regarding the wiring needs of such a turnout.

http://www.ztrains.com/pages/powered.html

In the graphic, the only moving parts are the closure rails, the frog and wing rails are fixed and electricall connected. The gaps cut just after the frog should prevent any possible shorting.

Any opinions on this design would be appreciated.

Thanks
John
http://www.ztrains.com

[pgrayless]

John,

While I didn't look at the web site you mentioned, from your written description this should work fine. THe only additional comments would be to isolate the frog from the closure rails. The would increase the production costs, as you'd hve to wire the closure rails to their stock rails. The only reason to do this is to prevent a possible short between a stock rail and the point next to it when the two are not touching. This can sometimes occur when a metal wheel that is not gauged correctly. Otherwise, everything should be fine, as the same method has been used in the larger scales successfully.

Paul

[Anonymous]

Hi Paul,

The point rails have been designed to to sit close enough to eachother so that when the turnout is thrown one way or the other, there is no chance of the opposite side, back of a wheel touching where it shouldn't.

One of the reasons for electrically connecting the entire frog / guard-closure-point rails (one piece) is to provide the maximum surface area for driving wheels to contact. It's a tradeoff I realize, but with many Z locos, particularly a single rigid chassis (steam), the more surface area the better. The standard Marklin turnouts are famous for having locs stall at anything but high speeds.

To combat this, it's all powered on this unit. So far all tests done have showed no problems with the point rail shorting due to accidental point rail contact.

The only real concern I have is that if a loc runs into the turnout against the direction it is thrown, then I could see a short happening. It seems as if this would happen with any live frog turnout though.


John
http://www.ztrains.com
Exploring Basic Z Scale Ideas

[pgrayless]

John,

You are correct about all power routing turnouts having the problem of a short circuit when entering from the frog while the turnout is thrown against you. This is a major pain with DCC unless the time is taken to add a balast lamp to the frog and/or circuit breaker to protect against the short. I agree that the need to maintain contact with the power supply throughout the entire turnout is the main reason to use a power routing turnout. I've wanted this myself when I was using N scale a few years ago.

Sounds like you've got a winner here. Good luck

Paul