Wiring a Lionel 450 Bridge Signal

The easiest way is to use the 12029 Fastrack Accessory Activator Pack.  It isolates one of the outside rails so your wheels complete the circuit.  You can roll your own by removing the "pin" from both ends of one outside rail sections.  In addition to removing the "pins" you will need to remove any of the straps that connect the outside rails within that section.  Alternatively you could use either the MTH or Lionel IR sensors to trigger the signal.

I have a 450 signal bridge and wanted to connect to fastrack - the signal bridge has three connections labeled 1,2,3 - does anyone have a wiring diagram that could be used?  i have got the signals to work on O track and 153c contactor - but want to wire to fastback and get it to work

thanks

You'll need a device like the 153C or an electronic equivalent to wire it as you have two different lamps that light, the red for traffic on the controlled segment, and the green when the track is clear.

One such device is something I created and is sold through Henning's Trains, the Insulated Track Signal Driver.  This device will do the trick, here's how it would be wired.  The 12V/GND is from your accessory power.

John...for two separate tracks would 2 of your devices be required for train detection?

Rick

Yep, if you want separate control of the signals, you need separate trigger circuits to drive them.

ted K posted:

I have a 450 signal bridge and wanted to connect to fastrack - the signal bridge has three connections labeled 1,2,3 - does anyone have a wiring diagram that could be used?  i have got the signals to work on O track and 153c contactor - but want to wire to fastback and get it to work

 

thanks

Ted - Here are the original instructions.

As you can see, for two tracks, they have two 153C contactors.

You may run across Lionel documentation suggesting the 153E.  The "E" being the Electronic version of the 153C mechanical Contactor version.

The 153E is obsolete though I suppose you may find one on eBay or wherever.  GRJ's ITSD described earlier replaces the functionality of the 153E.

A potential source of confusion is the change in nomenclature or labeling when replacing the 153C mechanical contactor with an electro-mechanical relay.  The terminals of the 153C are numbered 1,2,3 while the ITSD (and pretty much all relay-based devices including the 153IR Infrared Detector) are labeled NC, NO, COM.  So here's a "cheat sheet" showing where to connect the ITSD in place of the 153C.

Of course the ITSD is an electronic device and needs electrical power to operate and an electrical trigger to activate.  So you need to connect the other 3 ITSD terminals on the left side of the 6-position terminal block.  GRJ shows that hookup in an previous post.

thanks 

Okay John, on your Track Signal Driver when wiring a common block signal with the red and green lights there's three screws, center is common and one side is connected to the red and the other side is connected to the green light (correct?). Your online diagram above shows 12v / hot going to one side of the lights. Is the 12v hot landed on each of the outside connections or does it go to the middle connection? Thanks for any help with this.

Check the diagram.

The hot goes to the common of the red & green, the common on the signal driver goes to the ground.  The signal driver relay switches the common between the red and green signals.

Maybe there is a demand for the GRJ Isolated Rail Relay devices after all? Or ITSD as Stan says above. He always has much more elegant names for these things than I can come up with...  They work great under either name though.