I did some searching in past forum questions but did not find much about Cobalt. In looking at info about these turnout motors a “Traintek”, review basically says they are smaller, quieter, slower action, easier to install, have a heavier spring wire and with gold contacts. I know they are more expensive than Tortoise but I want to install motors in certain PECO C55 turnouts and I want to leave the springs in my PECO double crossover on my new build. I have a couple of Tortoises on hand now but the Cobalt review saying smaller with a heavier spring wire is very interesting to me. I’m interested in others thoughts about this and is the Cobalt something for me to try on the double crossover? The double crossover right now is power routed by an AR1 and works great but it is hard to get at to switch the crossover and turnout motors are the way to go. Doug
I do not understand why you want to keep the Peco spring? That defeats the whole purpose of using a slow motion machine, you might as well stick with a solenoid. Once you hook up a slo-mo machine you won’t be able to manually throw the Pecos because of the force the slo-mo machine exerts on the point rail. Get rid of the spring, you’ll love the slo-mo action. If you insist on keeping the spring then you’ll have to beef up the linkages.
Ok, I hear ya about the Peco springs and can take them out but what about the Cobalt as opposed to the Tortoise? Space for the turnout motor is important to me also setting them side by side at each end of the double crossover. I have never set up machines for a double crossover before and setting the Tortoise under the track today showed me I may have a problem. Or yes, I could go with a solenoid but don’t want to. Doug
Besides cost - the Cobalt appear to draw more current than the Tortoise when stalled. The Tortoise only draws about 17-18 ma at full stall. The Cobalt motor draws 30 ma - enough to fry in-line bi-color LED’s If you are worried about space - Mount the turnout motor at some place accessible and is R/C plastic linkage/cables to make the connection to the turnout. In the long run, it makes install/maintaining much easier. And you can aways install a heavier music wire in the Tortoise.
Another possibility is to use ‘sevro’ motors - quite inexpensive. Check out Tam Valley Depot for more information:
http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/
Jim Bernier
Thanks for info Jim. I have looked at the servos and once I get around to it I might order them and give them a try. As I said in my first post the double crossover is power routed via an AR1 and works great so in my mind power routing of the Tortoise or Cobalt should not be needed. Am I thinking right? Doug
LIONS like tortoises. They are easy to catch and make good soup, They even come with their own bowl.
On LION web page, is story about install of tortoise machines, and some ideas about remote installs.
Here is video, you can see tortoise machines on the left as the trains enter and leave the 242nd Street station. You can even see them switching the position of the switches (if you look closely – look at the red connectors that connect to the tortoise).
ROAR
Hey Lion; Thanks so much for sharing your video with me and all. I’ll check out your site for the Tortoise machine install. I road the subways in New York as a kid living on Lunggylund, New York. Don’t you love the way I spelled it! Ha. Doug
Tortoise has a kit for mounting the switch machines away from the turnout. I have installed several of these on my friends N scale layout. Joe
Doug , if you hav the april issue of MR on pg.60 is a good article on how to extend a switch motor reach. this might help your situation. good luck JOE
Everyone is always talking about “Music Wire” for turnout linkages and other things. I kind of know what it is and that it’s stiff and springy. So the question is where does one purchase this magical wire?
Cheers
Dennis
Dennis:
K&S Engineering supplies several sizes of music wire. You should be able to find it at a good LHS or online HS. It is stocked by Walthers for example
Joe
The spring wire can be found in any hobby shop that has remote controlled airplanes, as for the double crossover and the tortoise just mount them opposing each other one north and one south. All you have to do is cross the wires so they open or close the turnout. If I remember right there was a article in MR that showed how to use only 2 tortoise to operate the double crossover. Jim.
LION finds that music wire is too springy to operate a turnout. Since so many people do it so well, I must assume that it is I and my trackwork that cannot make it work.
Be that as it may, a 1/16th" length of welding wire will move anything. You will have to enlarge the holes in both the tie rod and the tortoise, but they do work. even it can push a lightly mounted turnout off its base.
ROARING
Thanks to all. Doug
Thanks Jim, I never even considered that source of supply. I need some to activate some difficult turnout locations.
Dennis
Lion, this question isn’t about tortoise machines but after watching the video, I’m wondering what you are using to line your tunnel walls?
Cheers
Dennis
Tunnel walls? LION line them with whatever he can find…
Once upon a time on my previous layout, I liked the idea of stacked styrofoam mountains. But I had no stackable styrofoam at the time, but I did have boxes and boxes of 1940s vintage fiver ceiling tiles. They were only a 1/2" thick, but I had lots of them, and so I stacked them. Of curse they were heavy, and they were not easy to cut, but I tried them.
When I built the new layout, I cut them into 3" tall strips and glued them to the table top next to tracks. Instant tunnel walls. Not very bendable but what the heck, they were walls were they not? The LION thought that 1/4" fan fold foam would be nice, I found a damaged bundle at Menards, and so they sold it to me for a fractured price. Cut that into 3" tall trips and you could use it for almost anything, including tunnel walls. Of course this stuff has little holes in them which can be destracting. LION used a plastic compatible spray paint to paint these strips, but it was not that good on foam, but at least it distressed the stuff enough to obliterate those little holes. That stuff is ieacy to install. But having run out of that, but having hundereds of wine boxes (corrugated cardboard boxes) I sliced them into 3" tall strips, paint them and glue them next to the tracks. LION uses siliconized latex caulk for this.
To make a short story long, LION uses anything to make a wall. Subway walls are a dirty gray or a faded black, but in the gloom of the tunnel, they just look black.
Some of the walls, as in the stations, I make a printed wall using my computer and a lazer printer.
Example:
Thanks for all the info Lion, I have a bunch of ceiling tile pieces that I have left over from the suspended ceiling install in our basement. So those as you say would work for the straight stretches but my layout being based in the Rockies means very few straight stretches. Cardboard I can “dumpster dive” for so that is also not a problem. I like your approach to using what you have by the way. It’s sort of fun actually and leaves $$$$$$$$$$ for stuff that we can’t substitute.
Regards
Dennis
Lion, I love your video! Brings back memories of both Noo Yawk and Tokyo.
Doug, Were you referring to LonGuylund? Used to look at it across Pelham Bay from near my adolescent home in Da Bronx. Rode stinkbuggies (surface buses) to Bronx Science in the morning, then used my subway pass to explore the system on my way home - by way of Coney Island, South Ferry or wherever…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I sure was Chuck but I like the way my teenage buddies said it back in the day, a long time ago. It was quite an experience for a fourteen year old and up kid from the corn belt of the mid west . Doug