General Discussion (Model Railroader)

.Hey Fellow Modelrailroaders!

      I have a question that I hope somebody can answer, I have two peco turnouts that are manual right now, and I want to wire them up, now here is the good part, the rest of my turnouts are Atlas and they are wired, can I wire the peco's like Atlas,or do I have to try another method? Thanks for your help.

      P.S.

      I just want to say that it's great to be back on line with the MRR forum, I miss all the info that has been very helpful to me over the years, and just sayin' "heydo"  to everybody and reading what's been going on with there layouts. Hey to show how long it has been since I have been on line here, what has happened to the "Coffee Shop" I miss Zoe and Clohe Coffee and Apple pie Talk to you guys and gals later    

If you mean you want to motorise them then yes.

 peco do a motor that connects to the point or you can use another manufactuer ( forgive spelling) dont know if atlas motors will work. hope this helps

gav

The Coffee Shop is under new management.  It's now called Elliot's Trackside Diner.  (Geek-wise, these very long threads cause performance issues with the forum software.)  So, every now and then the mods will board up the door to the thread, and leave a polite note asking someone to start it up again.  Usually, they give the place a quick paint job, and maybe get some new tablecloths.  The Beer Barn thread works the same way.

Peco turnouts have a spring which holds the points in place against the stock rail.  They are designed to work with the Peco switch machine.  You can adapt other machines to work with them, but the spring is a unique feature, and if you're going to use something like a Tortoise you need to remove the spring (before installing the turnout, by the way.)  It's the spring that gives the Peco turnout its rock-solid performance.

Because the spring holds things in place so well, it takes a good kick to flip the turnout over to the other path, much more than is required of an Atlas, for example.  For that reason, you may need to use a capacitive discharge circuit to drive your Peco turnouts.  I built a CD circuit (about $5 worth of parts) and I use it to drive all my turnouts.  It works great, turnout performance is very reliable, and it even helps protect your switch machines from burnout if a toggle switch hangs up.  (I had exactly that experience about a month ago.)

Wiring is the same as an Atlas, but you need to connect the two posts on one long side of the Peco switch machine together.  That becomes the common lead, equivalent to the center post on the Atlas switch machine.

PECO switch machines are 'twin coil' types and wire up similar to Atlas. Mr. Beasly is right; the spring in the PECO switch is much stronger than most, and will require an extra strong machine. (PECO'S machine may use more amps to do this than what today's MRC'S low ampere models provide).

Not Pecos fault (MRC's).

Side note: PECO turnouts use a spring to hold their points against the stock rails. This is to insure good alignment and insure (metal to metal) electrical flow to the points. Atlas and other switch machines may not have sufficient 'push'.

People often get into trouble when substituting within brands. Best to use Peco switch machines with Peco turnots since Peco's machines are designed for Peco turnouts. Brand substitutions often can reduce reliability, or add extra work. Example: Tortoise 'stall motor' machines with Peco turnouts (requires spring removal and wiring contacts for reliableelectrical flow to the points).

retsignlmtr now why didnt I think of that? Thanks

Dave