I have two areas on my layout where three switches connect together and route trains between loops (click on image to enlarge):
I was thinking of wiring the turnouts so that when one SPDT toggle is flipped, then all the turnouts throw together. In this case they would all go from straight, to curve, at the same time.
My thought is that when a train is crossing the top two turnouts then both of these turnouts need to be thrown to the curve. If a train is rounding the inner loop to the bottom turnout at the same time, then that turnout would also need to be thrown to the curve or there would be a collision.
To me it makes operational sense to wire all the turnouts together and have them throw as one.
Doing this and having them all controlled by a single SPDT switch reduces the number of toggles to purchase, and this reduces the amount of wiring at the control box.
Is there a downside (in the long run) to having a layout wired this way?
The reason for connecting them together isn’t to prevent derailing. The goal is to simplify the operation at the control board so that there are fewer toggles on the control board, while still maintaining full functionality on the layout.
As I was thinking of how the trains would run, it occurred to me that at this position on the track there would never be a time when these three turnouts would not be thrown in the same direction.
I think that’s a personal choice in most cases. I read your description, and I can’t picture any scenario that you’d really need them to be toggled differently… at least it sounds like you know how you want the track to operate… and I think it’s kind of cool when one switch controls everything at once. It’s got cool factor there. In either case, it’s a wiring issue and it’d be very easy to change it up later, so I say do what you think works best for you. It looks like a tight area, so wiring them together seems practical to me.
Just keep in mind that a TRAIN traversing one of the turnouts will throw all 3 in that direction too. If a train is coming up from the bottom left, the next trip around will send the train out to the outer loop without operator intervention.
There are other interactive ways to control turnouts too. If you power your turnouts with DC, you can make your controls to set up entire routes automatically with very little trouble. Here’s a simple example: Assume that the turnout supply is positive relative to the outside rails. Imagine a yard throat where one turnout splits the yard lead into two tracks and two more turnouts split those tracks into the four yard tracks. Ordinarily you would need three controllers for the three turnouts; and you would often have to throw two of them to set up a route into the yard. But if you connect the anode of a diode (1N4001, for example) to one of the control wires of the first turnout and the cathode to one control wire of one of the second pair of turnouts, and connect the anode of a second diode to the same control wire of the first turnout and its cathode to the other control wire of the same second turnout, the first turnout will throw whenever the second is thrown either way. Do the same with two more diodes and the other control wire of the first turnout and you don’t need any controller for the first turnout–it will align itself properly when either of the second turnouts is thrown.
You can extend this to a larger yard by doing the same thing to each rank of turnouts. It is also compatible with the capacitive-discharge scheme often mentioned on the forum, for using accessory voltage with Lionel O27 turnouts.
I had them wired to control another switch as it was needed to have the train go where I wanted with out having to throw a switch myself i had it set up in a figuration that it would not throw the way I wanted if I didn’t but just to throw so it wouldn’t derail and you have nonderailing switches I don’t see a need.
I would prefer seperate control. the crossover switchs will throw when you turn one,the train will turn the other.but you may not want the third switch to turn each time.
