I am looking to mount a 2p2t slide switch under a Peco turnout. There is 1" between the turnout bottom and the bottom of the subroadbed. I would like to go through the hole in the Peco throwbar to a hole I make in the slide switch handle. I forgot to say that these are yard turnouts and that they are operated manually and are C100. Has anybody done this? I would like to hear if you have done something else to a Peco turnout to get electrical contacts. I am not planning on using switch motors in the yard.
I haven’t put any slide switches under a Peco turnout like you are proposing, but I have mounted ultra-miniature SPDT micro-switches along side turnouts so the throwbar activates the switch to change LED color from green to red or vice versa.
The switches I use are All Electronics catalog number SMS-234.
The biggest problem I see with your idea is that unless the slide switch moves exactly the same distance as the turnout throwbar, it may or may not perform correctly.
I am not exactly sure I grasp what you are asking, but it seems to me it should be possible to mimic the pins Peco uses on its switch machines on a purely mechcanical slide switch, presumbaly by drilling a hole in the plastic of the slide switch and firmly installing a slightly rounded off piece of rodding. It may be a good investment to buy a Peco switch machine so you have a pattern to follow. The bige challenge will be to securely mount the slide switch itself so it does not move.
For electrical contacts, you may want to take a look at the drawing and text on this link
The theme of that posting by Allan Gartner is the Insulfrog turnouts are DCC ready (there is a sort of continuing debate on that) but more importantly is the writer;'s point, and I quote him here: "Option 1: Peco provides a place for you to install these jumpers. Installing them would better able enable a short to allow your booster to shut itself down. They would also help prevent the jumpers Peco provided on the back across the frog from becoming hot spots and melting the frog. "
That posting has other links you may find very helpful even if you are not wiring for DCC.
I have not personally done this with Peco, but have seen it done using an angled throwbar and pivot point. Since the slide switch movement doesn’t exactly match the Peco movement(distance), the differences in length before and after the pivot point gets the necessary distance for the switch.
C100? Don’t know them but trying to match the throw of HO Peco Point to slide switches has always been tricky, if it’s a semi-permanent fix, you could try this, we used a local product Mercontrol but I’ve seen stiff wire and nylon tube used over the past couple of years
We had a go many years ago at a type of hand point control using rod and tube to slide switches at the front edge of our layout fiddleyard, there were omega loops between the switches and start of tube to take allow for the difference in throw
Cacole that is what I want to do. control a 2 headed hooded turnout indicator. I want to mount them under the layout not on the top of the layout. At 3/4" long they would be too conspicious on the top of the layout… I plan on mounting them flat so that the slide handle is almost touching the subroadbed. They would be fastened with CA so they would be solid.
Pick I didn`t see your 2nd post but wondered what all that jibberish in the middle of the 2nd paragraph was. I guess I will have to experiment with different micro switches to see if I can get the throwbar movement to match the switch movement.
Dave I always put the jumpers in with a 22 ga. wire on every Peco turnout I mount. Eventually the point contact on the stock rail will loosten. The new turnouts do not have that little tab on each point like the old ones did. Peco says with longer point rails there is no need for them.