slide switches for turnout controls, for baldwinjl

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

here are a couple of cruddy pictures taken with my phone. Let me know if these don’t show enough and I’ll do proper ones

For those of you not following the story so far, I control yard turnouts with a cheap simple DPDT slide switch mounted right next to the throw rod. The switch provides the motion, the locking action for the points (I don’t use Pecos) and the electrical contacts.

I don’t think they look too out of place (no worse than a Kadee coupler hook). To minimise visible impact, I shopped around for small round toggle on the switch, not the chunky rectangular ones. They had a chrome tube on them which I pulled off, making the switches even less conspicuous. Finally I painted everything visible rust/grunge colour. You might even consider disguising them as switch stands??

This is foam subroadbed so I just cut a slot in it to mount the slide switch in. Then I drill a small hole all the way through the foam for the wires from the switch. Then I wedge the switch in, add a bit of PVA and pin it down with a flathead nail at each end.

Plywood would require a bit more work to make a mounting bracket and drill a bigger hole.

I use one pole of the switch to power the frog, and the other pole for turnout position information.

The toggle on the slide switch is attached directly to the throw bar of the points using a bit of piano wire. I chose slide switches that had just the right amount of throw to throw the points with a bit extra for spring pressure. There are a range of sizes for these switches so its not hard to find one just right for HO or N. The biggest ones might do S scale OK.

I drill a hole horizontal through the toggle of the switch for the wire linkage. I bend a linkage with a small hook on one end for the throw rod, a crimp (“zigzag”) in the middle of it to provid

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Rob, I am not seeing the pictures [:(]

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me neither [:D]. Better now.

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Thanks, Rob. I think I just might try it!

5

Thanks Rob, I have 30+ Caboose Ind ground throws, but am finding I need to power those frogs for my lighter then air n scale engines. I remember MR talking about switches for turnouts, can a person mount them further away then next to the turnout? Imagine just longer wire?

6

Yes, but since you have the Cabeese ground throws already, you don’t need the physical attributes of the slide switch just the electrical ones, so a better option might be to use SPDT or DPDT microswitches. These little critters are only a bit more expensive. Mount them under the subroadbed with the trigger poking up to get operated by the Caboose or the throw rod.

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P.S. the mention of “longer wire” reminds me that I’ve installed these slide switches on the other side of parallel trackage with the wire linkage running under the intervening tracks through a brass tube, worked fine.