lionel #213 Lift Bridge

not sure if this is bridge you mean?

if it is there is 3 power connections one a 3 wire for raising and powering the lights.

2 more on opposite side for powering the track only you can daisy chain power hot wire from bridge motor power to track power you only need the middle rail power as the outer rails get common from when bridge is lowered onto track that touches underside of hollow track so connect your common to outer rails leading to the bridge as your track connects to a short piece of track leading to the tracks that raise up with the bridge hope this helps if this is the bridge you have.

$oo

$00

Yep..that is the bridge causing me to pull my hair out!  I do have the controller wired to the the 3 terminals on the single leg of bridge.  The bridge lights up, raises and lowers as it should.  On the opposite side of the bridge one leg has a single terminal and the other has two terminals.  The single terminal goes to hot bus, on the other side one goes to the hot bus and the other one ties into ground bus.  So, the single and double terminals should be powering the rails on the bridge...right?  But my rails read 0 on the voltmeter.

thanks for helping

Principal RailRookie ,

as to wiring for track power to the single terminal on bridge is this coming from tracks beyond the isolated bridge tracks?

look at step #5 in manual it shows power coming from track power on opposite side of isolated track.

 now I have to ask are you sure bridge is all the way down so the track on the lift part is sitting on those track pins if there not fully resting on those track pins there in lies your problem as no power is being allowed onto the bridges track as there's also a set of contacts that when bridge is raised cuts track power to isolated track on each side of bridge so when lowered if they aren't fully depressed it prevents power to flow through the isolated track sections.

you might have to shim under bridge where you secure bridge to layout if you find the center track span not sitting with full weight on track pins and fully depressing those 3 metal contacts.

if you raise bridge watch where track comes up you'll clearly see those 3 metal contacts raise up as the track weight comes off of them  right where the bridge track ends are.

hope this helps to get the trains running.

$oo

$oo,

Thanks for your patience.  I now understand how this bridge is to be wired.  I thought the two terminals opposite the 3 terminals for the controller were for rails and lift mechanism.  Obviously that was WRONG and the root cause of my problem.  Thanks for the explanation!  I just wired it up and I now have 18V from the rails of the bridge! 

Thanks again....I am very grateful.

Principal RailRookie,

there ya go!! glad to have helped sometimes another set of eyes is all that's needed.

I made same mistake as you so don't feel bad as that wiring diagram could be better just by saying bridge power to these 2 terminals only and the other saying connect track power only on this one terminal  right in the picture of the diagram they have in the manual.

now go run some trains and see if isolated sections keep your engines on track and not on the floor!! best to check now and correct.

$oo