Note 10/26/20- I have realized I was making this much more complicated than needed but the idea popped into my head and it had to run its course 😜
My club has been building a new layout and we are planning to have a yard are possibly powered by 3 different power sources. Each of the main line 360w Legacy PM’s and a 360w PM for the yard. This is mainly to accommodate our small number of conventional trains so that going from the yard and onto any “main” is a smooth transition and no need to actually change transformers. In this case a TIU is in passive mode and with the 360w PM there is a available 20A on the track. Now I doubt in any given section will pull 20A but If someone gets a string of incandescent passenger cars and 4-6 Pul-Mor motors that is a power hungers trains with a 3.5% grade. With 20A I don’t feel a standard toggle switch is best, so now most likely a relay is the best option but got to thinking if a solid state relay was used would that be better? Or am I now making things more complicated. My thought is then there’s now contacts moving and possibly arcing inside the relay. I would think a TRIAC or FET could do it but I am not a electrical engineer. Then even if this could work would it be more reliable than a standard relay this is a layout that will get at minimum weekly use. Just looking for thoughts and opinions and if I’m just making this more complicated than it needs to be
Thanks
