I have a total of 9 Kato turnouts on my layout, currently using those blue Kato 24-840 turnout control switches. I’m running DCC.
I’d like to put together a control panel with the track plan on it using toggle switches (illuminated red & green, for example) to both switch the turnout and show the position of the turnout. Can you recommend a toggle switch that will work with my Kato turnouts?
I am not sure if they used toggle switches, but the MR “Cripple Creek” project layout in the early 1990s (maybe 1990-1991) used Kato unitrak and they built a panel with push buttons. That might help you somewhat.
the toggles need to be single pole, double through momentary contact. if they arer not momentary, you’ll burn up the selenoid. a search through here and the Kato untitrack uses group on Yahoo, will show you several diverent ideas on how to do it. Dave
My experience with Kato’s Unitrack (double crossover,N scale) is that these have two wires,requiring reversing the polarity to switch unlike other turnout brands wich use three wires (straight-diverge-common)…Assuming all Unitrack are the same,you need a momentary DPDT switch to power them but then it won’t keep constant power to a pilot lamp on your board unless you install a latching relay (like Atlas’s no.200 Snap Relay) to take care of this feature.