You answered your own question "on the other side of the split rail" - the split rail power to the bridge reverses the polarity of the bridge track when you go past it. So now the polarity of the bridge rails does not match the polarity of the stall tracks. Easiest solution is an autoreverser to the bridge rail power. Power it fromt he same bus that powers it now, no need to rework the whole thing, although some people find it useful to put a switch on each stall track to kill the power so a) you don't have a dozen engines all sounding off at the same time when you turn on the power and b) so you don't accidently select the wrong address and drive an engine into the turntable pit.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hello,
I am having trouble with the Walther's 90 ft. HO turntable radial track wiring. This is the second incarnation of the turntable that is DCC with indexing controller. I have read the thread from 2011 on this forum where some say that an auto reverser is needed and some say not. I am in the DCC camp that it does need one because of the following scenerio.
Here's the issue. All of my radial tracks are wired to the same bus the same way on its own DCC Specialties circuit breaker. This means all of the radial tracks are wired the same all the way around. The Walthers turntable receives power from another bus. I have 17 powered stall tracks. From position 1 on the controller which is stall track 1 on the DCC controller to stall track 11 all works fine. Both ends of the turntable work just fine. These are all on one side of the Walthers split rail DCC design ring located on the bottom of the bridge. The lead in tracks, of which there are three, are on the same side of the split rail. When I get to track 12, which is on the other side of the split rail design the, ALL of the remaining tracks short when an engine attemps to go on these powered track 12-17 (six tracks) when either end of the bridge is aligned with these tracks. Why would this happen? Wiring has been quadrouple checked and I am pretty DCC savy but I cant figure this one out. The turntable has been in service for a year with no powered radial track and was used just to turn engines. I have now added the powered radial tracks because I am at the punch list area to work on my engine facility.
It is not advisable to put the Auto Reverer on the radial tracks. It is more advisable to put it on the bridge. Would it be better (and I think I just may have solved my issue with this) power the turntable from the same bus? Or install an auto reverser on the existing wiring to power the turntable from the bus?
Is the DCC issue that I have the turntable powered from one bus, and the radial tracks powered from another? It would take 5 minutes to change it I think. Opinions?
Bill Shanaman
Sugar City, CO.