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The Case of the Power Routing Turnout

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  • Member since
    March 2017
  • 8,173 posts
Posted by Track fiddler on Sunday, November 28, 2021 6:47 PM

B Rutherford

All weekend my wife was telling my nephew and his girlfriend about my layout.  The girlfriend who is barely 20 thought MY HOBBY sounded really cool.

This morning I got the chance to show them the layout.  I turned on track power, acquired my favorite steam loco, hit the horn and NOTHING!! In fact much to my horror nothing on the main level had power and I had no idea why.

 
That must have been a real bummer Bill.
 
I could almost feel your frustration from your story and it reminded me of Christmas Vacation when Clark Griswold gets all psyched up to plug the Christmas lights in after the drum roll and NOTHING!
 
At least you didn't kick all the ornaments and Santa all over the basementLaugh
 
 
 
 
 
 
TF
  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Sunday, November 28, 2021 6:44 PM

It was a great story, Bill. Thanks for sharing.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Lancaster, NH
  • 131 posts
Posted by B Rutherford on Sunday, November 28, 2021 6:30 PM

No, all good!  And yes I told him he should keep her.

The post was intended to be tongue in cheek. Fact is I am almost old enough to be her grandfather.  Just laughing at the idea that a young woman found model railroading cool.  

Sorry if anyone misunderstood. 

- Bill Rutherford Lancaster, NH

Central Vermont Railroad 

  • Member since
    November 2013
  • 2,775 posts
Posted by snjroy on Sunday, November 28, 2021 5:01 PM

Oh shoot I thought it was the OPs girlfriend. I hope I didn't offend anyone!

  • Member since
    November 2013
  • 2,775 posts
Posted by snjroy on Sunday, November 28, 2021 8:28 AM

I think you should marry that girlSmile .

Simon

  • Member since
    April 2013
  • 917 posts
Posted by Southgate on Saturday, November 27, 2021 9:26 PM

To eliminate the contact problems that will inevitability occur with power routing, I include a spdt in the mechanism that i use to throw the switches and  feed-wire the moving parts  and the frog.. That way my layout has to find other ways to embarrass me. Dan

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • 1,553 posts
Posted by PRR8259 on Saturday, November 27, 2021 8:35 PM

Kato also uses power routing turnouts.  For me it was easy...power flows in the direction that the switches are thrown.  I have no blocks whatsoever...My double ended passing sidings work well.

  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Lancaster, NH
  • 131 posts
Posted by B Rutherford on Saturday, November 27, 2021 5:28 PM

Peco, but again,  no fault of the turnout.  Simply incomplete wiring....

I feed every aspect of a turnout, making them bullet proof.  I also use tortoise motors so no closure issues - just haven't gotten that far yet on the main level, only on staging.

That combined with my good friend,  Mr Murphy and failure was almost guaranteed!  LOL

- Bill Rutherford Lancaster, NH

Central Vermont Railroad 

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,367 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Saturday, November 27, 2021 5:25 PM

I've had my share of head-scratching while laying my original Shinohara track and wiring the feeders. All of the turnouts were power-routing. I had to keep chanting the idiom.

ALL feeders must be at the point end of turnouts and ALL frog-to-frog rails must be gapped.

A big takeaway about feeder wiring is, TEST Frequently! Sometimes after doing a marathon wiring session I would encounter an undecipherable short. Realizing I had just wired maybe two dozen feeders I had to go back and trace each one plus check every rail gap to be sure none had mysteriously closed up.

Those were the days Embarrassed

This helps:

https://dccwiki.com/Turnout

 

Cheers, Ed

  • Member since
    August 2010
  • From: Lancaster, NH
  • 131 posts
The Case of the Power Routing Turnout
Posted by B Rutherford on Saturday, November 27, 2021 5:14 PM

First a bit of background:  my layout is very much in the beginning stages.  A bit of track on the main level is in.  Power feeders have not yet been run and turnouts are held in open or closed positions by pushpins.

All weekend my wife was telling my nephew and his girlfriend about my layout.  The girlfriend who is barely 20 thought MY HOBBY sounded really cool.

This morning I got the chance to show them the layout.  I turned on track power, acquired my favorite steam loco, hit the horn and NOTHING!! In fact much to my horror nothing on the main level had power and I had no idea why.

They politely admired the rest of my work and we headed back upstairs.   A little while later I got 5 minutes to sneak back down. I grabbed my multimeter only to discover a dead battery and no replacements.  I was pretty well deflated.

Fast forward 6 hours, the company has left....  I was looking for something else when I found the 9 volt batteries that had eluded me this morning.   A new battery and two minutes with the meter and I discovered a switch with the push pin removed allowing the points to drift away from the main rail - no power. 

As I said it is a work in progress and there will be feeders but for now it made for a pretty embarrassing story... Embarrassed

- Bill Rutherford Lancaster, NH

Central Vermont Railroad 

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