I have six Tortoise and two occasionally cause shorts ussally only when running in one dirrection. I have attempted adjusting them but haven’t had any luck yet.
Is there a something inexpensive that I could put in the wirring to delay the current flow when it is reversed thus avoiding the short? I would rather not use the light bulb.
This is exactly the reason I don’t use tortoise switch machines. I had one one time and it was a royal pain in the BUTT!
Didn’t really care for how the Toroise switch machines mounted to the underside of the layout, I the prefer American Limited switch machines. You have to assemble them, they have been in daily service on my layout for years now without a problem.
Since I have more than a hundred Tortoises on my layout, let me offer a tip or two. First, if you used the stock spring wire, replace it with something heavier. You’ll probably find a wire that is just a little bigger than the hole in the fulcrum flange that the wire pivots back and forth in will be needed. Just use a drill bit to open the hole up a little, if needed. I don’t recall what size wire this is, but it will be stiffer than the stock wire and give you better point holdiing pressure, too.
The other thing to do is to slide the fulcrum flange on the side of the Tirtoise down so that the tip of the wire that activates the points will give greater leverage, resulting in more overall movement.
This should help.
In extreme cases, you may have to reposition the mounting of the switch machine. Sometimes, you can drill another hole that is off centerr in the fulcrum flange and gain enough adjustment to avoid having to remount.
If you are using DCC, be aware that getting the Tortoise setup so that throw of the points is exactly centered is what you want to achieve. The short is caused when the internal contacts switch polarity before the points move enough to reverse their polarity. This can be a bit tricky, but should be possible with some attention to the adjustments I’ve noted here.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks MIke, I was thinking about if a resistor would work. I dont need a light bulb, as I power the turnouts with an indipendant power supply. When the short hits, the tortoise keeps running and the DCC resets.
I have adjusted the fulcrum but will adjust downward as you suggest.
Thanks Again.
Here’s the inside of a Tortoise. As you can see, the wipers don’t change contacts until the throwbar is in the middle. The turnout points should not be making contact with the outer rails at that point.
I also use thicker wire (0.032" piano wire or what Walthers calls music wire). Never had a short with Walthers/Shinohara turnouts (using DCC, and most are old non-DCC-friendly turnouts).