Loco approaching from frog side of turnout.

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

[:D] Hello to all, I have posted this before and still don’t have a definative answer. I really need to know what I need to buy, so I can rid myself of this problem. There Are two areas on my layout that are out of view and the train always approaches the turnout from the frog side, so it has a pretty good chance the points are in the wrong direction. I need to automate this so that the points will be"switched" to right direction just before the train enters the turn out. I am on DC running mostly Broadway limited locos and switching to DCC is not an option. All turnouts are atlas code 100 snap switches and #4. Thanks for any help .
Jon

2

there are many circuits avaliable to auto sw your turnout Here’s a good site it might help you.

http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/CircuitIndex.html#index

Ken.

3

you can also put 2 LED 's (Light Emitting Diodes) on your control panel wired to an Atlas relay (that is controlled by the same momentary turnout slide push button switch that controls the turnout to show you the position of the switch before the train enters the turnout.) One LED will light to show the turnout position on the main line track if it is lined up for that track, and then the other LED will light to show the position of the turnout if it’s lined up to the diverging route…I have a simple diagram of how to wire it…e-mail me and i’ll send it to you as soon as i can if you are interested…Chuck

4

You could also install a spring switch as long as you use plastic frogs. That way you have a small piece of steel rod hold the turnouot in the most used directon and let the wheels pu***he turnout in the other direction when using it. A very fine piece of steel piano wire works well BUT if it is bidirectional you will only be able to take the one route when approaching from the point end.

5

If the train ALWAYS enters the turnout from the frog side, you could leave the points “floating” by not connecting any type of motor to them, and let the trains move the turnouts. This will even work with a Peco turnout if you remove the centering spring. You would never be able to back up, though.