I recently installed a Bowser turntable on my layout, and most of the 17 whisker tracks are in place with power leads hanging below the layout, ready to be wired. I'm looking for a compact, simple way to control power to them, so please post photos of your turntable control panels here. Any details about what switches you used, how you connected the tracks to an AC- bus, would be much appreciated!
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Nothing much to show, but I have 9 toggle switches all in a row, numbered for the 6 stalls in the roundhouse, and the other 3 "garden tracks" (which is the terminology used by the railroads).
Thanks for the proper term - I couldn't seem to find that anywhere...
I run both TMCC and DCS. I prefer toggles for each individual track. Everything I believe came from All Electronics. Nothing fancy but it works for me. They are laid out in the order of the tracks. Not many tracks so no need to number anything. You can watch the engines exit and leave the roundhouse through the windows. I use 12 volt relays to switch power off and on rather than the toggles themselves.
This panel hasn't been built yet, but I plan to start in the next couple of weeks. The green color tracks are inside the roundhouse, the rest are garden tracks. Each one will be controlled by a 10 amp DPDT toggle switch which also turns on an indicator light. The arrival/departure tracks are long enough for two locomotives so they are each split into two separate isolated blocks. From a "looks" perspective, it will be the same style as the second picture.
I use toggles. This is an old picture, I now have a second set of 12, same black panel.
Rotary switch.
Toggles.
Rotary switch plus toggles to power bridge and also to serve as "on" "off" for all "whisker" tracks:
I wire each just as a block, with its own spst switch on control panel.
Before I replaced all my PS2 batteries with supercaps, I would often leave locos on powered tracks to charge.
Wow, these look good and are very helpful. When connecting the garden tracks to a common bus, is your bus just a heavy, bare wire? I have a few lengths of N scale rail I was thinking of using for that purpose.
BigMike88 posted:Toggle switches, each whisker track wired separately
Very nice! Any photos of your roundhouse?
Sean
stangtrain posted:Rotary switch plus toggles to power bridge and also to serve as "on" "off" for all "whisker" tracks:
Interesting solutions. Rotary switch only powers one track at a time, how do those with toggles make sure two leads are not powered at once? Or do you prefer the ability to have more than one lead powered at a time?
49Lionel posted:Wow, these look good and are very helpful. When connecting the garden tracks to a common bus, is your bus just a heavy, bare wire? I have a few lengths of N scale rail I was thinking of using for that purpose.
That will work. My toggle is only used for the hot center rail.
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