Friends. Need help. I am operating two #252 crossing gates Lionel-with 1 section of O-Gauge insulated track with the lockons on that section, what I want to do is make it look realistic and when I tried to insulate about 4ft. of track so the gates go down and up after the train is thru like a real railroad,It will not work.How do I get it to work on more than 1-insulated section of track,Have insulated pin on out side of rail,Also in one of the Classic toy trains magazines there was an article about insulated track and can’t remember which book it was from. Can anyone help me with this problem.Can you give me some suggestion .Or know what book it was in.
Thank You
Celeste
You may e-mail me at rctaylor@pennswoods.net
Celeste, the insulated track as it comes from Lionel or K-Line has a plastic pin on each end of the insulated rail. To make the “circuit” longer, you’ll need to replace the plastic pin with a metal one connecting each section of the insulated track, thus creating a longer insulated rail. So in other words, you’ll have a plastic pin on one end of the 4 sections of insulated track, then a metal pin connecting the next 3 sections of the insulated tracks, with a plastic pin at the very end of the 4th piece of track. Thus creating a longer section of isolated rail to activate your crossing gate.
Eventually you may want to try one of the infared accessory activation devices. I have the MTH one that looks like a silver box and it works pretty good. Although nothing is perfect… with the insulated rails, the wheels on your cars need to be periodically cleaned for reliable operation. With the infared devices, room light, types of cars as well as color of the cars can affect operation.
In the old days, Marx made a snap on rail that went right on top of a normal piece of track and that would operate accessories like an insulated rail. I’ve made my own version of this using a aluminum cake tin: cutting a long thin strip and using 3M carpet tape to not only adhere it to the track, but also as the insulator.
Hope this helps and have fun with the trains over the holiday.
brianel
Want to Thank You for your help,Hope you had a nice Christmas
You’re very welcome Celeste! I think one of the fun things of this hobby is the basic do-it-yourself way of operating. Someone once called the new trains of today “rolling computers on wheels.” I have more than enough trouble with this stationary one that sits at my desk. I run trains for fun, not frustration. I really enjoy the simplcity of doing things the old-fashioned way. Someone once said to me that “if I wasn’t running my trains via Command Control, I wasn’t running them correctly!” Nonsense. TMCC has been around roughly 13 years… the trains have been around over 100, and were running just fine before the advent of the new electronic controls.
But I say, to each his or her own. I won’t fault anyone for choosing the electronics. Now, if some of the folks who choose the electronics would simply not fault everyone else who chooses otherwise.
brianel
Well put Brian…Been running trains for 60 years, the old Pre-war were great…the new TMCC have new problems…however I’ve got them running after many tries.
My only tip is keep your track clean.
currently i have a 4X8 layout with a basic oval and i finally got a room of my own that is big enough to allow me to expand my layout considerably. I have enough room to extend out another 12 feet in length making the overall length 20 ft and out an additional 8 feet from the wall allowing 4 feet to walk around the layout. i have spent a lot of time looking for track plans on the net with little results and have reviewed every copy of model railroading that i have recieved over the last 4 years. any links and or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
nelson
I suggest you consider an around-the-walls type of layout, which will give you a much longer run.
Nelson:
Check out www.Atlas-O, They have Layout software that is free.
They call it Right Track Freeware (Ver. 5.0)
Lots of samples to choose from, just takes time to get used to.
Used Right track, like right track. I advist too. You can also get it from www.atlasrr.com.
I need help on how to wire a set of Lionel Mainline Auto Crossing Gates (model # 6-14098). I have Gargraves track and I want to wire it to the track (insulate the track) so when the train gets close the gates will go down. The Lionel Crossing gates have a red, blue, white, yellow, black wire and I’m not sure where they go to. please email me at jbielun@ameritech.net Thanks, John