I realize this is part of a diagram of lionels’. But one question if the switches at the bottom of page were connected. How would you create a block with toggle switches for the all four switches? This would leave the remainder of the tracks with power.
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??? You want to control switches with toggles or turn off/on a siding, or turn off/on rail power within a turnout ??????
Which turnouts? There are many and they differ.
Anything can be done but you'll need to be more specific, more accurate with descriptions, include a bit more info of what you may have on hand, etc.. Draw it if you have to.
I have 3 Lionel PH 180’s. One for each loop (Power District) Red, Blue, and Green. The eight turnouts above the letter “F”,I would like to control power with an On/Off toggle switch. There are Lionel fastrack 1 3/8 straight pieces connected with the center wires removed. So two or three trains can go thru. The Yellow will be a separate power district with the turnouts near the letter “D” connected to toggle switches. Also a turntable will be connected as well. Unless there is another way. I have tried to create a block with no success. I connected the center rail from the straight 1 3/8 piece to the toggle switch and connected the other wire to a terminal block with power from PH 180. No success.
ok, to start, each section you wish to control must have a plastic pin or gap on each end of the center rail of that block be it one piece of track or.many.
The outside rails will(should)continue to connect full time (or be connected around any isolated anti-derail trigger, etc) So now you have a dead center rail/block that needs the "hot" run to it.
Regular track power; jump the main's center rail power to the toggle (com tab on toggle sw) , now connect the dead center rail to roggle No or NC tabs (chooses toggle off=up or on=up) (NC: nomally closed (wires touch normally. N.O.= wires are open, not touching)
If there are three tabs inline, common is usually center if not marked. Sometimes numbers are used and thats more likely proprietary, best to test vs assume. (6 tabs, is usually two totally separate 3 tab switches in one package; left3&right3 don't share tabs inside)
If there are only two sw tabs you'd have to flip the switch over for off=up or visa versa.
LED Lighted toggles have a different set up required for them to light up.
If you run power to the switch com first, and used N.O.tab to th main track, and N.C. to the siding, the toggle controls "either, 1 on at a time". As described above, it only turns off the siding, the main remains powered.
Don't try to shut off your turnout rails. Don't count on a turnout to deliver power thru itself, use jump wires to go around a turnout. (turnouts have too many internal connections to carry lots of power without more resistance than a wire...time only makes this worse. Lionel has suggested this as "best" since prewar and never really stopped.)
Since both items are involved, note a switch is an electric device and a turnout has rails. (the RRs call it a turnout, not a switch.) Usually the contexts don't collide
I got bored last night and was thinking if the TOs were numbered you could pinpoint areas easier by description e.g.: "between #17 straight exit and 19 straight exit" or similar statement.
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oops, there are two patterns to numbering above... choose one