I Need Wiring Help!!!

[Anonymous]

I'm 16 years old i started railroading a few years back with all my dads old stuff, and i've bought new(HO scale). But when we moved from our old house i tried to set it up again and couldn't remember the proper way to wire DC current, i lost the wiring books and my dad said it had something to do with the way DC currect overlaps and i need to have plastic rail joiners at certain spots? i've completely forgot how it used to be setup, it has a main line that has switch tracks to an inner liner which has a small rail yard in the center if you can help please let me know.

[Anonymous]

Rule #1, don't burn down the house!!!! Having said that, a trip to the local Hobby shop for assistance would help. Keep in mind that the DC circuits are done in series meaning that the inner rail should be positive and the outer negative or the other way around, it doesn't matter. With out seeing what you have or having a schematic it is hard to tell.

[Anonymous]

You might try your local library too/first.
It's not that complicated really, but, there's more involved than can really taught in this format. Pictures are big helpers here.

chow

[Anonymous]

Zack - Hello, I too am relativly new at this thing, though my family has been big in it off and on in the past (the very, very past past). Wiring continues to be my biggest hangup...why? Because I can't imagine a wiring diagram in my head to save my life...but it is easier in practice than theory, that is what they tell me.

What you have to remember, and I am paraphrasing "Easy Railroad Wiring" (I beleive that is a Kalmbach book, but not sure...oh, and it should be "Trying to make Railroad Wiring Easy" because I am struggling w/it...having had no background in electronics myself) but back to the point: The rails carry the power to the train, negative down one track, positive down the other. Positive is usually fed to the right rail (versus the left) just to keep things releativly universal. The engine then picks the power up through its right wheel, and sends it to the motor. Positive on the right and the train moves forward. You switch polarity and now you have positive running up the left rail...this switches the motions of the motor in the engine and it runs backwards.

Now the only thing you have to do is make sure that where you have positive coming down a rail it doesn't join a rail that is already being fed a negative stream...thus causing a short and bad things happen.

If you have a spot (switching yards are atrocious) where you simply can't avoid a positive rail contacting w/a negative one...then use the plastic rail joiner there to avoid the two lines touching. Keep in mind that when your loco comes across that gap it will hit the negative current and fly backwards immediatly, thus causing a stalemate where the engine rocks back and forth. You need to isolate that darn negative track (install plastic railjoiners on the other end) and then run a feeder line so that now it is positive as well. It gets really confusing when you think about it...in theory it is all really simple...in practice it is something else entirely. Want an example? (don't laugh at us those of you who have been doing this for years and are thus Railroad Modeling pro's and we bow to your far superior intelect, blah blah blah) Imagine a train running down a single line, at the end is a loop that curves around and then intersects the track again, the engine now pointed in the oppositte direction (imagine a "P" shape). Where the loop intersects the line you have a short, the positive rail is going to connect to the negative rails...and here you need someone smarter than me (or a book) for help.

I hope this makes some sense, if not, at least it will give you something to read. Good luck,

-Justin