I have one of these in a little used part of my layout. It’s wired according to the drawing provided by Ross. The issue I am trying to resolve is significant sparking of the outside wheel-rail contact points whenever anything with a roller pickup passes through in either direction on one of the two crossing tracks??? (the one connected to the normally closed contacts of the relay.) The sparking starts on both wheels on the lead wheel set, one of which is touching one of the embedded rails that is connected to the NO contacts of the relay. It occurs when the first roller pickup hits the metal diamond. Everything regarding the powering of the embedded rails functions like it should with the DZ 1008 relay switching power to the embedded rails appropriate for the passage of a train on either track.
Have checked everything at least ten times regarding proper wiring to no avail, including pulling up some track and removing the crossover for a thorough inspection. Nothing found upon close examination or continuity checking. The relay also checked out okay, but I installed a new one out of desperation. Same problem. New DZ 1000 switch machine – same issue.
One thing I noted was that with approximately 15 V applied to the track and my volt meter registering 15.3 V between center and common including from the appropriate relay powered embedded rails to common, there is a 3.2 V reading between center and other set of embedded rails that the relay has “off.” I don't understand that part at all.
I read every post I could find about this crossover to no avail. Tried to email Steve about this but apparently his email address has changed.
Any suggestions would be appreciated because at this point I feel two new switches and an “S” curve coming and one crossover leaving.... and I can't afford it.
Thanks.
