I just finished my latest Superstreets project, a dogbone around Grand Central Station cuing 4 EZ Street Taxis using IR detectors. Some "lessons Learned" follow:
1) The Taxi's kept derailing when entering the Superstreets "Y". The taxi wheel flange would run into the "Y" points. I shimmed the roadbed with Superstreets center rail material to ease the flange past the points.
2) I embedded IR detectors in the "reflective" mode in the Superstreets roadbed. Didn't work. The taxi's are so low to the roadbed including undercarriage detailing, the lack of clearance blocked reflection. The bottom of the taxi's are painted black which didn't help either. I painted them white and that didn't help much either. Changing to the "across the track" mode worked.
3) 8-10 inches of Superstreet roadbed is the minimum length for any isolated section to ensure adequate stopping area.
4) Adequate taxi speed is required for the taxis to operate the Superstreet "Y". Too Fast and the taxi derails, tool slow and the taxi stalls. The adequate taxi speed is too fast to provide reliable stopping on an isolated 8-10 inch roadbed section. Dual voltages solved the problem. I found that about 14 VAC was about right for the taxi's to navigate the "Y". I fed the same 14 VAC through 6 diodes which provided about 8 VDC to the isolated sections.
5) One-shot solenoid to reset one of the two dogbones "Y's" so the taxi would always return in the same direction and not reverse.
6) IR detector variable delay adjustment balanced out "race" conditions between competing taxis.
7) Advanced planning paid off. Maximum wiring under the layout to permit reconfiguration during troubleshooting and fix implementation. Variable delay IR detectors with both one-shot and continuous mode capability. 4PDT relays for logic implementation.
8) Detector on/off switch allows operation either as a single taxi reversing dogbone or 4 taxi cuing animation.
9) I purchased my 4 taxis in two buys years apart. One taxi purchased years before buying the other 3 in a single purchase. The one taxi purchased years earlier ran noticeably faster than the other 3. The other 3 seemed to all run at about the same speed. The faster taxi proved troublesome in balancing the cuing animation. Advice, purchase all vehicles in a single buy maximizing the likelihood that all vehicles are from the same production lot.
