O-27 Question

[GPJ68]

I didn't think about soldering in some short rail sections flange-to-flange. Butting the flanges would make it easy to keep the appropriate spacing. I used another strip of the plastic wrapped with some tape and stuck between the rail and guide to keep the spacing consistent while the glue quick-set (same spacing as the K-Line's). I'll have to keep your solder method in mind, in the event that the plastic or the glue doesn't hold up well over the long run. There was no particular reason for the lengths I used - The first one worked, so that's what I stuck with.

As far as wiring the Marx's for non-derailing - do the switch motors remain energized if a train is stopped on the control rail (like the Lionel's do), risking burning up the motors (like the Lionel's can)? That's the thing I like about powering/controlling the K-Line's and Marx's separately from track power - no need for the MTH fire car to respond to smoking switch housings.....

GPJ

[lionelsoni]

Yes, it's exactly the same situation. However, I have often described here the way I solve the problem for my Lionel and Marx switches: Power the switch with DC from a 5000 microfarad, 25-volt electrolytic capacitor instead of an AC track voltage or accessory voltage. Ground the negative side of the capacitor to the non-isolated outside rails. Charge the capacitor through a 10-watt 100-ohm resistor. You can use a DC supply for this; but it works just as well with a single rectifier diode (1N4001, for example) from the AC supply. Point the cathode (the end with the stripe) of the diode toward the resistor-capacitor circuit(s).

The hardest part of this scheme is usually getting access to the hidden coil wires of the Lionel O27 switches. With the Marx, that is not a problem; and wiring up the circuit is very little trouble by comparison.