I'm building a layout from the well known "101 Track Plans", and the plan includes the liberal use of insulating connectors. Often, there isn't any electrical reason (that I can determine) for them to be used in many cases.
Can somebody explain why that would be? Thanks.
I'm not sure what they're refering to as "insulating connectors," but all wire connections should be insulated in some way to prevent shorts.
Insulating connectors divide the layout into electrical"blocks".. They isolate one section of track from another. If you have reversing loops and don't use insulating connecters you will get a dead short as the rails are reversed in their polarity as it merges back into itself.
On DC layouts insulating connectors are used to seperate electrical blocks which allow one to operate more than one train on a layout. A simple block would be a siding which is isolated from the main line allowing you to "park" an engine there and turn the power to it off so you can pass by with another engine. You can find out a lot more by studying How to Wire a Layout by Kalmbach publishing. BILL
rekleinInsulating connectors divide the layout into electrical"blocks".. They isolate one section of track from another. If you have reversing loops and don't use insulating connecters you will get a dead short as the rails are reversed in their polarity as it merges back into itself. On DC layouts insulating connectors are used to seperate electrical blocks which allow one to operate more than one train on a layout. A simple block would be a siding which is isolated from the main line allowing you to "park" an engine there and turn the power to it off so you can pass by with another engine. You can find out a lot more by studying How to Wire a Layout by Kalmbach publishing. BILL
Thanks. I'm still learning about wiring, but from what I can tell, this layout is making completely spurious blocks. In several cases, there is simply no need to isolate them.
So, why would this be?
I can't find my 101 track plans book otherwise I could look at what you're trying to build. However, if its a fairly large layout, the insulators are there to divide the track into multiple blocks for multiple train operation. If you were operating two power packs you'd have to wire each pack separately to that block and be able to turn one off and the other on to operate an engine assigned to the power pack currently running the engine.
For DCC one doesn't need as many blocks as the engines have their own address which is carried through the rails. Blocks in DCC are usually used to isolate ares to facilitate finding shorts. They are also used to build reversing loops.
On my own layout,an around the room 12x14 I use DCC and have only one block. BILL
rekleinI can't find my 101 track plans book otherwise I could look at what you're trying to build. However, if its a fairly large layout, the insulators are there to divide the track into multiple blocks for multiple train operation. If you were operating two power packs you'd have to wire each pack separately to that block and be able to turn one off and the other on to operate an engine assigned to the power pack currently running the engine. For DCC one doesn't need as many blocks as the engines have their own address which is carried through the rails. Blocks in DCC are usually used to isolate ares to facilitate finding shorts. They are also used to build reversing loops. On my own layout,an around the room 12x14 I use DCC and have only one block. BILL
Thanks again. The layout I'm building is (I believe) meant to have only one power pack, although it doesn't explicitly state that. It is comprised of 2 main loops, and the outer one should be wired with a polarity reversing switch.
Given only one power pack, isolating blocks for passing or idling trains doesn't make sense. The only reason I can think of is to reduce shorts, but it seems like overkill, given the number of breaks they call for...
The reason I'm trying to understand this is I do have 2 power packs, and I'd like to wire things up so one could control the yard, and the other one would control the outer loop. Before I do that, I want to understand why they have it drawn up the way they do.
101 Track Plans was assembled pre-DCC, and a layout blocked for two analog DC cabs does have a lot of blocks that are, at first glance, overkill. A simple loop of track with a passing siding on each side normally has, at minimum, 8 blocks. For DCC, the whole loop can be a single electrical unit. If so-called DCC friendly turnouts are used, there need be NO separate blocks.
However, you might want to consider that, if you ever desire to install signalling, the layout will have to be sectioned off and fitted with track occupancy detectors. By no coincidence whatsoever, detection sections have a near 1:1 correspondence with analog DC power sections.
About those insulated rail joiners - it's no more difficult wiring with or without them if you use a drop from every rail length. Uninsulated rail joiners can't be depended on to carry locomotive power without fail.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - analog DC, MZL system, lots of rail gaps)
If I may offer my opinion on the clear plastic (insulating) joiners, and that is all it is...an opinion...I will never resort to their use again. I bought one package to use on this current layout, my second, and quickly discarded them as a poor substitute for measuring close gaps and isolating sections of rail that way. As long as you leave maybe 1/16" gap between rail ends, and also have the odd sliding joiner to accommodate changes in rail lengths or movement due to temperature and humidity swings seasonally, I would urge you to forego the plastic joiners entirely. They are not particularly great at keeping rail ends aligned, although they do the job...but my main beef is that they are grossly oversized in a way that a metal joiner is not already oversized and visible. Even painted cleverly, such as weathering them along with the rest of the rails, they will be clearly visible in photos.
Leave decent gaps, ballast properly so that the rail ends stay nicely aligned via the hardened ballast, and save the aggravation of the plastic joiners.
-Crandell
I, too, consider the usual clear plastic Atlas insulated joiners something of an eyesore.
The international orange ones I acquired somewhere, sometime, even more so. (Same design as the clear ones, but might have been made by Shinohara.)
Then I went railfanning in a local industrial park - and found the prototype for that big, bulky, ugly orange Thing, on the spur closure rail of a turnout off the main switching lead close to a grade crossing with gates and flashers! Don't know what kind of plastic it's made of, but each part is about 40mm thick. The bolts are insulated, too.
Yes, Matilda, there really IS a prototype for everything!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
tomikawaTTI, too, consider the usual clear plastic Atlas insulated joiners something of an eyesore. The international orange ones I acquired somewhere, sometime, even more so. (Same design as the clear ones, but might have been made by Shinohara.) Then I went railfanning in a local industrial park - and found the prototype for that big, bulky, ugly orange Thing, on the spur closure rail of a turnout off the main switching lead close to a grade crossing with gates and flashers! Don't know what kind of plastic it's made of, but each part is about 40mm thick. The bolts are insulated, too. Yes, Matilda, there really IS a prototype for everything! Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I saw them in black on an industrial spur grade crossing in Maryland.
Enjoy
Paul
reklein I can't find my 101 track plans book otherwise I could look at what you're trying to build. However, if its a fairly large layout, the insulators are there to divide the track into multiple blocks for multiple train operation. If you were operating two power packs you'd have to wire each pack separately to that block and be able to turn one off and the other on to operate an engine assigned to the power pack currently running the engine. For DCC one doesn't need as many blocks as the engines have their own address which is carried through the rails. Blocks in DCC are usually used to isolate ares to facilitate finding shorts. They are also used to build reversing loops. On my own layout,an around the room 12x14 I use DCC and have only one block. BILL
The wording of this is a little misleading, you don't need to run wire from the separate power supplies all the way to each block, this part is all done at the panel. You need wiring from each power pack to the selector switch for each block, THEN one set of leads from each block switch to the track block.
selector If I may offer my opinion on the clear plastic (insulating) joiners, and that is all it is...an opinion...I will never resort to their use again. I bought one package to use on this current layout, my second, and quickly discarded them as a poor substitute for measuring close gaps and isolating sections of rail that way. As long as you leave maybe 1/16" gap between rail ends, and also have the odd sliding joiner to accommodate changes in rail lengths or movement due to temperature and humidity swings seasonally, I would urge you to forego the plastic joiners entirely. They are not particularly great at keeping rail ends aligned, although they do the job...but my main beef is that they are grossly oversized in a way that a metal joiner is not already oversized and visible. Even painted cleverly, such as weathering them along with the rest of the rails, they will be clearly visible in photos. Leave decent gaps, ballast properly so that the rail ends stay nicely aligned via the hardened ballast, and save the aggravation of the plastic joiners. -Crandell
One question on this: how do you keep the insulated gap from closing with expansion and contraction of the rails? As rail expands, what would make it move at the sliding rail joiner and not the open gap for isolation?
So why not install the gaps now just in case a second power pack becomes available later?
I'm probably guilty of cutting too many gaps in my layouts. I'd rather connect the feeders from each side of the gap to join blocks is simpler than cutting new gaps and installing feders later. And as we all know, you can never have too many feeders.
Martin Myers
Tom, there is nothing stopping either one, but the idea is to provide several of both. Even in extreme temperature changes, NS rail expands or contracts a few mm over a contiguous length of 100'! What I would worry about is wood shrinkage and drawing the various gaps closed as that happens. Ideally, maybe not always realistically, as the benchwork dries out in heating season, the various gaps here and there would close, with the hope being that a simple gap would not close completely. If that ever happens, then that place would be a candidate for a styrene spacer.
I'd make a spacer, but never resort to those bulky insulating joiners.
feh......Given only one power pack, isolating blocks for passing or idling trains doesn't make sense. The only reason I can think of is to reduce shorts, but it seems like overkill, given the number of breaks they call for...
Actually, isolating blocks for passing sidings and parked trains make a lot of sense when using only a single power pack. My DC-controlled layout, a point-to-point-to-point trackplan, is set up as a single block (currently about 185' of mainline, but will be about 250' when finished), as I'm usually the sole operator. I run the trains "sequentially", so train "A", travelling westbound, will meet train "B", travelling eastbound, at a certain point. An isolated passing siding allows me to park one train, then use the other train to exchange any cars between the two before continuing on. There might be four or five trains en route at any one time, with all but one "in the hole". This also allows faster trains to overtake slower ones, and through trains to pass others that may be doing local switching in a town. Unlike DCC, only one of the multiple trains is in operation at any one time, especially important in my opinion, if there's only one operator. If you have multiple operators, DCC is definitely the way to go.
For insulated rail gaps, I cut them using a cut-off disc in my Dremel after all of the track has been installed, with all rail joints soldered together. I use a single pair of feeders for the entire layout and, where a track section has been isolated, simply drop a wire from the powered track, run it through an ON/OFF switch, then connect to the isolated track. To keep rail gaps from closing, slip a small square of .020" Plastruct ABS plastic into the gap, securing it with ca. After the cement has cured, use an X-Acto to carve the plastic to the same profile as the rail. Because the plastic is dark grey, it disappears even without painting and stays "disappeared" even when you clean the track.
Wayne
fehThanks again. The layout I'm building is (I believe) meant to have only one power pack, although it doesn't explicitly state that. It is comprised of 2 main loops, and the outer one should be wired with a polarity reversing switch.Given only one power pack, isolating blocks for passing or idling trains doesn't make sense. The only reason I can think of is to reduce shorts, but it seems like overkill, given the number of breaks they call for...The reason I'm trying to understand this is I do have 2 power packs, and I'd like to wire things up so one could control the yard, and the other one would control the outer loop. Before I do that, I want to understand why they have it drawn up the way they do.
In the world before there was DCC (and it was good), there were 2 common ways of wiring layouts for more operation of more than 1 train simultaneously.
The 1st, sometimes called sectional control, was a refinement of Lionel wiring for multiple isolated loops with a transformer having 2-4 speed controls. Each power pack or speed/direction controller was hard wired to a particular section of track. But there are problems with this scheme any time a train changes sections and controller (power pack). At the moment metal wheels bridge the isolation gaps between the sections, the isolation is lost, and both power packs/controllers are feeding the locomotive. And when a locomotive is straddling or bridging the isolation gaps, there is a feedback current between the 2 power packs whenever the 2 output voltages are not matched exactly. In the Lionel world, this feedback current is not protected by the circuit breaker, and often eventually damages transformers. Nevertheless, sectional control persists because it so intuitively obvious to implement. Beginners almost always default to sectional control unless they are taught differently.
The 2nd method, commonly called block control, assumes the same power pack will control the train wherever it goes on the layout. This gets rid of the problems associated with changing control from one power pack to another. The layout is divided into blocks, and electrical switches are set up for each block to select which power pack will control that particular block. I strongly encourage the purchase of Andy Sperandeo's Easy Model Railroad Wiring (http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12207.html), or Westcott's earlier version (commonly available used). Both books go into details of block control and power routing turnouts with lots of pictures and drawings to help your understanding.
You didn't say which of the 101 Track Plans you were using. The gaps or isolation points in that book (I just pulled out my copy to confirm) are based on both logical points for block boundaries and the use of power routing turnouts. Power routing turnouts add complication to the location of gaps, but reduce the number of blocks needed by cutting off power to the path not selected. Atlas turnouts are not power routing.
A final caution about 101 Track Plans: if you are using Atlas or other commercial turnouts without cutting or modification, it is highly unlikely the track plan will fit in the space shown in the book.
hope this helps
Fred W
I've never found a need to use insulated track joiners. They are a waste of money and destroy the illusion. All that's needed are prudently located gaps in the rails.
Mark