being a novice, i would really like to know how to wire one of these properly as i had need for one on my layout. the gent i got it from could not remember how. thanks to anyone who can solve my dilemma.
Don’t think of a double slip as a big complex peice of trackwork. Think of it as what it really is, 4 turnouts and a crossover and then you can start to work through and figure out where the jumpers need to be and where the insulators need to be.
There can be some variation with different manufacturers, but in general double slips are easy to wire. They need feeders to the two stock rails - the outermost rails that run right through on each side. Then the two end frogs should be isolated from the middle of the double slip and fed through auxilliary switches in tandem with the opposing set of points. See the diagram in fig. 3-19 on page 36 of my book, “Easy Model Railroad Wiring,” Second Edition, published by Kalmbach Books.
Good luck,
Andy Sperandeo
Editor
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
There are a couple of tricks to bear in mind with double slips.
If you have insulated frogs, you may only need 2 wires if all the rails on each side are connected together.
If you have all rail frogs, you need extra frog wiring; this needs to be controlled by the points at the opposite end of the slip.
The other neat trick is called the X-section. Model Railroader had an article about this in 1957 or so. You isolate the slip from the tracks that lead into it and feed the power to the slip through the contacts on the switch machine and they are connected to the 2 tracks at one end. (your choice of end). This lets you send power to the blocks from the cab of your choice and the switch takes power from the appropriate block. It’s a lot of fun to wire a series of slips this way.