Rich,
I have plastic rail joiners and once I pick-up the Digitrax I will most likely ask you for advise, again!
Paul
Paul, while you are waiting for the auto-reverser, there are some things you can do to ready your track.
The most important thing to do is to desolder the rail connection at the end of each divergent track on those two turnouts. Once the rail connections are freed up, make sure that the section of diagonal track (the reversing section) in the center of your layout is no longer connected to the oval. Then, make sure that your trains do, in fact, run on the oval portion of your layout. That will verify the existence of a reverse polarity problem, and it will also prepare your layout for the installation of the plastic rail joiners and the auto-reverser.
The other thing you can do is to prepare for wiring the reversing section. I assume that you are using a pair of bus wires on your DCC layout with feeder wires coming off the bus wires to your rail connections. If so, you should disconnect any feeder wires from the bus wires that are used to connect to any track inside the reversing section. Those feeder wires will need to be re-routed to the output side of the auto-reverser.
Rich
Alton Junction
Hi Rich,
My layout is in the attic and the only place the Mrs. would allow. We had a cool patch at the beach in NJ for a few days now we are back to humidity and Heat. I ordered the Digitrax AR1 since it was not in stock. as soon as the weather breaks I will act on your great suggestion.
I have two types of bus wires; an Atlas (2wire screw connect) and the EZ-Track ReRailer w/red wire plugin connector on both ends go to the E-Z Command Dynamis Wireless DCC Controller.
Paul,
What you describe,,,is not Buss wires,,not at all what Rich is asking..I'll let him handle the answer,,,rather than have too many hands in the POT..
Cheers,
Frank
It was allot easier when I was a kid.
What are you talking about? We still are!! LOL.. In the mean time,,,,see if you can get your hands on,some 14 ga. wire,,two different colors,,,Red,Black,,,,Red,White and so forth and possibly,,22ga wire,or 24ga,to match the colors you choose for the 14ga.wire....You will need them,for the Buss and feeders...
HI Frank,
Sales Manager: Pharmaceutical Industry.That's all you had to say :I have all that red, black, white green 18 & 22ga wire.
Pint of Guinness is on me!
PAUL
Since you are going to run your layout under DCC power, what you want to do is string a pair of 14 gauge solid wires under the layout, roughly following the oval. Then, you will connect feeder wires, typically something like 22 gauge stranded wire, from the bus wires to your rails. What a lot of us do is solder the stranded feeder wires to the undersides of the metal rail joiners.
Just out of curiosity, what type of DCC system wil you be running, Digitrax, NCE, etc. ?
Purchased in 2011 EZ-track set which included the EZ DCC Command wireless controller. Had collected track and wireless auto reversing turnouts over time and it worked great! However, realism is the key to a great layout. EZ-Track is great for carpets. I wish I had that when I was a kid at Christmas!
I still billed 1/700 scale model WWII Naval Dioramas and I know how important it is to be realistic.
After speaking with my uncle( 65 years as a Model RailRoader) he recommended to go to standard HO Flex track with cork road beds. The layout was rebuilt salvaged as much track as I could from the original EZ layout (broke about half) and began my new journey.
Totally forgot about the polarity issue so we are starting from scratch with your help. The EZ Track wireless turnouts was great as well as the track connections, just had trouble with the needed radius's and the cost of the track vs. Atlas or Life-like
So here we are.
Paul, if you are going to use regular flex track, instead of the EZ Track, with your EZ DCC Command system, then instead of providing power to the track with the red wires that plug into a EZ Track rerailer, use the other pair of red wires with the bare ends. Connect the bare ends of those red wires to a pair of 14 gauge bus wires.
Paul1261, Let me suggest that you move the two tracks diverging from the diagonal Reversing Section up very close to the top of the layout, & place the second turnout immediately after the one diverging from the Rev Sect This is to insure that all of your trains that you are switching will remain in the Rev Sect (Diagonal track) and will prevent potential shorting or activation of the Auto Reversing mechanism, as mentioned in earlier contribution. Looks like you're ready to go; good luck & Happy MRRing....JWH
JWH
Thanks for the added ideas.
Knee injury playing basketball last month and I hope to continue my adventure next week, plus its getting cooler in NJ and my layout is in the attic.
I am not using the EZTrack auto reverse turnout which I had from the beginning. I went to flex track with remote Atlas turnouts.
Thanks,