Wiring assistance

[Lawrence]

Guys, am going to have a small second level in my shed for my JR stuff, roughly 8x6 by 12 wide shelves.  I have come up with this plan and would be greatful for any wiring advice (DC Operation)  I have got some second hand track which includes the double crossover - there is only one pair of wires from this, is that correct?.  Anyway, here is the plan, kept it simple



Your comments, questions and advice are very welcome

[cteno4]

Lawrence,

yep the double cross overs only have one pair of wires (kato or tomix) they work by flipping all 4 switches at once to either to straight thru or to the diverging position to allow the crossover from all directions.

simplest of all would be to have two powerpacks, one for the inside line and one for the outside line. you would then only need to place insulators in the crossovers you have there between the two lines that are made from switches (the double crossovers are insulated in the center). then you can use the power routing of the points to turn sidings on and off. the only problem i see with doing it this simple is the siding at the bottom right there as using just the switch power routing wont get power to it. you would need to supply it with a jumper from some other section of track that would get power when you would also need it there.

would then just need to strategically place your main feeder points for each line. usually like every 6' is pretty good, but depending on the joiners you am find you need to slip more in if you have a power drop somewhere.

next step up would be to insulate off all sidings and do a control panel with dpdt switches to give power to sections from which ever power pack. more work and wiring to do then though, but none of it is rocket science!

cheers

jeff

[Lawrence]

Thanks for the reply Jeff.  So if I have this correct, power will route through the normal points (switches) whichever way they are set so I'm really looking at creating isolated sections??  What about the double crossover, do I need to run feeds to either side if it is isolated  in the centre (does it insulate straight thru or just swapping over?) and presumably if I'm swapping from inside to outside (or vice versa), I would need to have the 2nd controller ready to supply power?

The feed to that spur wont be an issue

[cteno4]

Lawrence,

yep the in the crossovers the two lines thru are totally isolated from each other so you can have a power pack on one side and one on the other. the problem is that one rail (the inside one on each track) is broken in the center to do this, so you have to feed both sides of each of the track independently. if you have a complete loop all the way around to the other side this is no issue, but usually you will have a switch in the loop that if thrown to route off the loop you will break the loops complete circuit. sometimes you can live with this but better to see if you can engineer it with power feeds on both sides of each of the tracks (from their perspective transformers). also you want power feeds like every 6' or so (at a minimum) to help with voltage drops that occur from the track (nickel sliver has some resistance and joints can be poor connections at times).

power routing is sweet as you can manage a lot of sidings and passing tracks just by using the point directions, but you need to think through your operations to make sure it fits with all you want to do and how you want to do it.

if you feed that switchback track from another piece of track you just have to make sure that in your plans you will have both active at the same time. usually this means you might only have one train on those two sidings there, you cant park a train in the switch back siding and still use the siding leading into it to run a train onto at the same time. its even tricker in that if you run a train into the top siding, then throw the point to go to the switch back track, both will be dead as you have removed its power source.

simplest solution would be to remove the switch back and add it as a siding off the main.

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Hi Lawrence,

Just a bit of track planning advice: At the top right corner you have an S curve, where your track branches left and then immediately right.  You should work in a short straight section between the two reversing curves.  A 6" or 150mm length should be ideal, especially if you're planning to run passenger trains with 20m cars.  Without the straight the couplers are doing a lot of work on the reverse bend and the gaps between cars looks quirky.

Cheers

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

One thing I would add is to run the layout for a while before you fasten the track down permanently or start any scenery, sometimes bugs in the wiring or track plan don't become apparent until you've had a few running sessions. Unitrack makes it easy to 'debug' a layout before it's all set in place.

[The_Ghan]

.... as does Tomix FineTrack .... 

Cheers

The_Ghan

[Webskipper]

This is a nice layout. Plenty of parking.

Be sure to add a 62-64mm straight piece between all 'S' curves to give the trucks a chance to "rest" before entering the opposite curve. This prevents derails.

Since you are running DC, then by all means create blocks.  These blocks can be later wired to the main lines when the layout becomes DCC.

[Lawrence]

Guys many thanks to you all for your excellent advice, funny how I used to wire up military jets, but simple railroad DC always puts me in a mess   Wait till you see the plan for the lower level US layout 

The point work on the right I want to keep as is (Kinda like a head shunt) and I can work round it by extending slightly and putting in an isolation section through a DPDT.

Unfortunately this is out in the garden shed and it's minus lots out there right now with no sign of it warming up for a week or two so it will be a while before I tackle this!

[Webskipper]

If this layout is going to be outside then you'll want to attach the modular track to some 1" blue foam to prevent lots of expansion and contraction.