I’m sure the answer is in the forum somewhere but I only have a few minutes. What is the major advantage of the Tortise over…say…the NJ Int. twin coil? I finally got to handle the Tortise and it is massive! It seems a little much for N scale and for space considerations. Both can be used with DCC acc. decoders and can be mounted either below or beside the turnout, right? How far underneath or beside can each be placed affectively? Last, for various reasons I’d like to use 1/8" board as my base below the foam instead fo 1/4". Can I still mount safely on this? I’m sure somebody has a good reason for me not to use the 1/8" so I’d like any info…
much thanks again!..J
I don’t know if it is the Major advantage. But in general a stall motor is much more quiet than a twin coil set up reguardless of brand.
As I recall one of the original selling points was the slow motion action.
A disadvantage of the stall motor is that they use electricity continually.
I’m also reading online about the Peco twin coil. Moreso about the aux contacts available for it. It talks about a DPDT switch kit mounted to the switch machine for frog power, signals…etc. Can someone explain this in a little more detail to me? Does this mean that, when switched, the switch machine will in-turn control another electrical device such as a signal aspect?
Thanks again…J
J.
The main difference in the tortise and twin coils solenoids is how they throw the switch. Twin coil solenoids use a snapping action to move the points a quick, forceful wham to move the points over. These machines need a momentary contact switch to trigger them. The stall motors ( tortise, switchmaster) use a slow moving fulcrum effect to gradually throw the points by slowly moving them over. The machines keep moving in the direction they are set until the resistance gets too high and they stall out. This keeps the points tight against the stock rail. The force applied can be adjusted (at least in the switchmasters) by the size of the resistor that you use. The motors are designed to stall like this so there is no damage to them. They use a tiny amount of voltage when stalled so power consumption is very small. These machines use a constant contact switch to trigger them. Many people like stall motors because the operate smoother and are not as hard on the switches as the " crash and bangers " are.
As far as your wiring questions, I would look up Alan Gartner’s wiring for DCC site and take a look at his section on switch wiring. There are lots of ways to wire stuff depending on the switch brand you use, dead frogs or not, insulfrogs, power routing, DCC friendly and the type of switch machine you use. In general, I avoid extra contacts on the switch machine and use triple or even quadruple throw switches to make my auxillary contacts. I also use relays for momentary contact machines for auxilliary contacts…I’m sure some one else will chime in here with some other ideas for you.
Main reason is the prototype.
As the prototype doesn’t “snap” but travel to it’s final position the modell should do too.
I kinda miss the “mushroom cloud” sound effects from the old Atlas switches…NOT!
The Peco electrical switches do the same sort of job as the extra contacts on the Tortoise and NJ machines. Peco make both single pole and double pole contacts. I’m using the single pole to control frogs; the double pole would also control a sgnal or a relay.
Tortoise are much kinder to hand-laid track.