Maybe some of you electronically gifted people can help an electronically challenged model railroader?
I have two paralell tracks with two Atlas isufrog turnouts creating a crossover between the two tracks.
I want to control these with 1 DPDT Toggle and two Tortoise switch motors. I would like to switch the toggle one way and have both switcches throw simultaneously so that in one position trains on the mainline will continue on their respetive course and when switched the othe way the crossover is active and trains are routed to the other mainline.
I want three led’s one one on the main and another on the other main and one in the middle showing that the crossover is active.
The tortoises are powered from a 12v Power Supply, LED’s are 12v
wire them across the leads going to the tortois machines. With the DPDT switch in one postion one of the leads will be +12V. wire the LEDs you want to be ON with the anode (+ side) of the LED connected to that lead.
wire the LEDs that you want to be on in the other switch position with the anode of LEDs connected to the other lead.
normally, LEDs without resistors can be wired in series with the switch motors because they draw ~10ma. But it sounds like you have LEDs with resistors. I’m also not sure if you can do that with two tortoise machines in parallel unless you only wire the LED in series with a single tortoise machine
 with the turnouts aligned to the diverging route the LED on the control panel will be green and the LEDs on the mainlines (Straight routes) will be red indicating the turnouts will rout the train through the crossover from one mainline to the other.
with the turnouts aligned to rout the train straight through the mainlines will each have a green panel LED and the diverging route will be RED.
im trying to avoid having one led for each turnout (2) on the diverging route.
Not exactly what you’re asking for re: the LEDs, but maybe a simpler option to consider. I use a bi-color LED (red/green, use the 2-lead type, not the 3-lead type) at the control panel for my crossover (and all my turnouts, for that matter).
I’ll refer to Kevin’s diagram above, which correctly shows how to wire 2 Tortises to 1 DPDT switch. Connect the green wire from the Tortises just before it reaches the DPDT to one lead on the LED, then the other lead of the LED to the DPDT, shown in Kevin’s diagram on the lower right. You want to have the bi-color LED green when the crossover turnouts are both straight thru, and red when the turnouts send the train thru the crossover. If you get the opposite result, just swap the LED lead connections. You have a 50-50 chance of getting it right the first time! I found it helpful to connect the LED in with test leads before soldering.
As Greg mentions, and per Circuitron’s own literature, resistors are not necessary, the resistance of the stall motor is plenty.
Don’t quite understand why the red light in the middle. I have two locations exactly like you are describing and green for thru, red for divergent. What does the middle light tell you that the other two do not?
That lower wiring diagram is how i wired the hole layout.
When I wanted to use 1 DPDT to cotrol 2 Tortoise yet only use 3 (bi-color-2prong) LED’s with the center one coming on when both turnouts are switched to the diverging route I was not sure how to wire it.
On all my control panels I have turnouts depicted with LEDs indicating (green for the route direction and red for the other direction. Just tying to keep the indicators the same.
I’m also a little confused on you wanting to use 3 LEDs. You just need 1 bi-color at the control panel, next to the toggle. Green for normal route, red for diverging. For a crossover, green for both tracks straight thru, red for cross. Or am I missing something?
But I take it you want to use 3 bi-color LEDs, as a choice. No issue. I see 2 ways you might do that:
You could use the LEDs in series in the wiring to the Torti, without resistors. Each LED will use about 2 of the 12 available volts. With my single LED, I just put it on one of the DPDT output terminals to the Tortoise(s). If the colors are backward, I either swapped the wires at the DPDT or at the Tortoise(s).
But with 3 LEDs it gets interesting. If you put one in the lead to each of the 2 Torti, then the LED would use 2 volts and leave 10 volts for the Tortoise. Each would move similarly. The issue would be the 3rd LED. If put in one of the DPDT output wires, then each Tortoise will see (because of 2 LEDs in series to it) about 8 volts, moving slower than your other Torti, but surely ok. You would have to get the polarities of each correct. This would be a variation of Freeway3’s diagram, adding an additional LED to each Tortoise wire after the split to the Torti. The common LED would need to be the reverse direction of the other 2 LEDs.
