Steve, thanks so much for this wonderful thread. I read it through several times with a good sleep in between to make sure I understood your input. I have ordered the breakers from the sources you listed. I ordered 2 each of 10, 7.5 and 5 amp. Half are back ordered till later this spring, but at least I have a plan. I am just now getting back into trains. When I last ran trains (in the 1970’s) it was O gauge tubular 3 track Lionel’s from the 50s. While my brother now has that set, I have been buying various old stock and accessories from that era. I now have about 100 ft of track and most of the other stuff I need and purchased a refurbished Lionel ZW (R) 275 amp transformer.
Again, it is my intent to run only the old stock, only on the old track. Engines, a few lighted cars and some decouplers, lighted buildings and street lights. I intend to have inner and outer tracks, switches, and a number of sidings. Overall size is about 8ft x 12 ft with several levels (mountain), etc. I was particularly excited to see your thread about running the 4 “terminals” independently and having breakers on each… new idea that was very helpful.
So, with that in mind, here are my questions (and please… excuse the ignorance… any experience I had as a kid was rudimentary and my one electrical engineering class was 35+ years ago). First, I have no clue what that diode is all about. What it does or how it works. Your helpful diagram shows the line coming out of the terminal (and thru the breaker), connecting to the middle track and coming back via the outer track to the common closing the circuit. But tangential to that and not in line with it the diode is just connected across the two lines. What does that do and how does that help. Additionally, there is another one just hanging out on the other side of the track. It is all perplexing… again, excuse my ignorance on the topic.
Secondly, my layout as a kid was an outer and inner loop. One power connection near the transformer and of course loss of power on the other side (and now I know why). But when I added an additional small loop off the side (and put power on it), as the train crossed over into that area the train would immediately reverse direction. I went off to college soon there after and never “solved the issue”. Off to army and life so… here I am building a new one and need to ensure I can hook up my power at multiple points on multiple loops and sidings that I can turn on and off. I’m sure it was a simple fix but… a little help as I begin laying this out to wire would be great.
Final question (for now), I have a number of those Lionel connections and was intending to use them to connect my power by “clamping” them to the track. But I have seen a number of people talking about soldering wires for a more positive connection. Had never seen that done. I have both the skill and equipment to do so… is that how you all suggest I connect power? Thanks again. Wonderful thread!
