Many years ago there was one or more articles on building a pneumatic switch machine. Does anymore recall the year and issue number? I tried to search MR but got nothing. I have stored in boxes the MR issues that contained the article but it will take days to find it.
Sorry Nick68 I can’t help with the old MR article, but here in Oz there’s a new pneumatic system called Pufsuk. I am not affiliated with them, nor have I used them, but a search on ebay in Australia www.ebay.com.au will find them as they always have something listed under model trains. They’re not cheap, but the exchange rate will work well for you guys in the USA.
PS.
I did a google and found Del-Air Products pneumatic turnout control system in the USA
Cheers
Alan
There were a couple of companies that advertised pheumatic turnout control systems in Garden Railways Magazine. In the latest issue, I can find only one.
California & Oregon Coast Railway, Rogue River, Oregon at http://www.cocry.com
Whether these would function properly on smaller scales is something you’d have to ask them.
The E-Z Air components are pretty much identical to the out of production Del-Aire pieces, and work fine in HO scale. The club I used to belong to had the entire hump yard controlled with the Del-Aire machines. The advantage was we could use a couple of extra toggle valves to blow air back up the hill to act as a hump. Downside is every hour or so depending on how much operation was going on, the compressor would kick on to refill the air tank. And there were occasional blowouts when a hose slipped off one of the actuators or valves. Part of that may have been due to reuse of components from a previous layout.
–Randy
I checked their web site. Prices are indeed extremely high but probably justified for an outdoor G-scale railroad. I want to control turnouts and moving signals on an N scale layout.
Their web site also is not very well laid out. After a half an hour trying to get enough information to design some kind of system, I gave up. Had to constantly jump pages and work-back and forth.
I spent a long time trying to put together enough information to design a system but gave up; too much jumping from page to page. They should have a design guide on one page or printed to make this easier for selecting components.
Do you have have any guidelines for exactly what is required to put together the right components to control turnouts on an N scale layout?
Try E-mailing them - I’m sure they have instruction sheets or something that will explain. I looked at the site & think a #510 actuator + #610 switch, + some tubing & linkage will work - $22 + linkage dosn’t seem bad - you could spend that on a Tortise set-up, + the advantage of building a hump yard!![:D]
I checked into the PufSuk system. It looks very interesting. Price is not bad. The system is based on a manual plunger like a syringe to create air pressure to push in the control piston and then pull out the syringe to suck air out of the piston to return it. A bank of 3-way values control which piston is moved. Ingenous but a little cumbersome. I would prefer a double-acting piston and use positive air pressure to return the piston even though it would require an low-pressure electrical compressor.
I discovered that Del-Aire is out of business.
$22 is not bad at all considering some of the slow motion, gear driven machines for up to $60.00
You can buy small pneumatic cylinders from industrial supply houses and make your own…you just need to know the throw distance. You might even find some surplus ones.
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
As an aside, and not to change the subject, but a group I visited had a working rotary coal dumper, and they used tiny pneumatic cylinders to actuate the locking device (that holds the car in place on the track). They used electricals for the rotary part. They found out the hard way to put pressure regulators on the air, as 150+/-PSI, even on tiny cylinders (that were very much up to that kind of pressure, these were industrial quality ones) could really crunch an Athearn car. They found 5-7 PSI, and some soft foam lining on the retainers, was just the right combination.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled forum…
Brad
That’s what I thought. I searched google for miniature pneumatic pistons and was overwhelmed by the number of hits. Most had nothing to do with air pistons. After an hour or so I gave up. Do you have any suggestions for suppliers?
I had already determined that 5-10 psi was about right. I knew that full house pressure was way too much. Do you have any distributors’ names where I can get these cylinders? A google search returned a flood of hits with nothing matching my request. After a few hours I gave up looking at them.
One of the manufacturers is Bimba. I’ve got a catalog around here some where that has stuff from several companies…I’ll take a look for it.
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
http://www.bimba.com/ For their website. THat at least will give you a start for some ideas. I’ll kepp looking for the catalog.
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
You don’t have to look anymore. I ordered their catalog. I found some cylinders in the $15.00 range which I think seems reasonable. Now to locate a low-pressure pump and air valves.