I’m planning a loop around the Christmas tree. It will be partially on hardwood floor and partially on Oriental type area rug. It will connect to my semi permanent floor level layout which is 031 tubular on cork roadbed on luan raised on 1/2 x3/4 moulding and is about 9 1/2feet away from the tree center.
I’m thinking of using Lionel Fastrack, with a 48 or 60 circle plus switches to form 'Y’s with the circle and with the existing main line (tubular at the main line. I’ve never used Fastrack.
My question is: what should I use as underlayment for the Fastrak? I’d like it to be easier to work with than my ‘standard’ construction.
Just had an additional thought: I plan to power this loop with a seperate transformer. Do I need to isolate the outer rails as well from the existing tracks?
You don’t need anything in under FasTrack. The FasTrack roadbed will prevent oil stains on your rug and the track holds together solidly and will not come apart while you are running trains.
The two transformers must be in phase. So you don’t need to isolate the outer rails.
Except in the unlikely case that the transformers are in phase, set to the same voltage, and have precisely the same waveform, you may generate large fault currents and voltage spikes as you run from one transformer’s domain to the other’s. It is much safer to switch both sections to the same transformer before running across the gap between them, especially if you have modern locomotive electronics or wiring with less ampacity than the circuit-breakers’ ratings.
You will need to allow for the height of the rug, which I assume is laying on top of the hardwood floor. A small piece of rug or carpet of the same height under the tree and loop of track would work.
You can use multiple transformers; but arrange your block controls so that you can switch each block to be powered by any transformer output. With two transformers or a two-output transformer, this usually takes the form of a single-pole-double-throw switch for each block. Then you can always power the block that the train is approaching from the same source as the block that it is leaving.
In addition to being safer, this scheme keeps your train under the continuous control of one source. And it allows you to have many more blocks than transformers if you want. If you use center-off switches, you can also select “none of the above” to power any blocks where you might just want to park a train.
Some folks assume that, if the blocks are powered from multiple outputs of a single transformer, there is no safety problem. In fact, it is more dangerous with traditional transformers, since the fault current does not go through the circuit breaker. So the transformer will burn up before the circuit breaker will trip.
I think you may have just explained why my dad said his home built transformers frequently burned out. Are these cautions mentioned in Lionel literature for postwar transformers?
Dad and I used to try to run three trains continuously on a layout with a large double loop plus bypass cannected to a remote single look by "Y’s at both ends, if you can picture that. We had transformers at each end with two power controls each. All were powered at the same time, controlling different interconnected loops. The operating idea was to exchange three trains between the various loops without ever stopping any train, and of course this was all conventional.(Eventually there would often be a collision) I don’t see how I could do this type of operating in a future layout with the restrictions you suggested. Do you agree, or is there a way?
The only mention I have found is in the service manual for the KW: “Note that the circuit breaker does not protect binding post combinations A-B, B-D, and C-U.” Of course, a similar warning would be just as applicable to all the other transformers with more than two terminals.
For more than two transformer outputs, you can use more complicated arrangements of switches. For example, an SPDT and a DPDT for each block can select up to four transformer outputs. You can select from six with one SPDT and two DPDTs, or eight with one SPDT and two (harder to find) 3PDTs. Rotary switches are also a good way to go, but a little pricey.
Another way of handling block control is to give each operator a set of SPST switches that simply connect each block to his own control. This allows the operators to be in different locations. But it must be used with caution, so that no two operators select the same block. A way to avoid this is to use SPDT switches instead, with the highest-priority operator either selecting a block for himself or passing it on to the next operator. (The lowest-priority operator needs only SPST switches.)
You can combine these concepts to duplicate what you and your father did. Give the higher-priority operator an SPDT for each block to sieze it for himself, then another SPDT to assign it to one of his two controls. Give the lower-priority operator only an SPDT to assign a free block to either of his two controls.
There is even a way to arrange things so that both operators have equal priority and can reassign a block without the others’ permission!