Hello,
I am still so new at all of this, does anyone know how to connect the Lionel main line crossing gates to an mth IR track device. I have tried all three wires to the NC and the NO and the common. But no luck. They will go down when my train passes but will not go back up. I’m not sure if they are compatible with the MTH IR device.
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Which MTH IR device do you have? The so-called Realtrax ITAD or the Scaletrax ITAD? The Realtrax is the one that fits into a Realtrax track-section sort of like a lock-on. The Scaletrax is the one that look like a RR equipment box kind of like the Lionel 153 IR detector.
And to be absolutely clear, your Lionel 6-14098 gates have only 3-wires? There are versions of the 6-14098 that have 5-wires.
Hi I have the real trax itad and yes I have the 3 wire gates.
Oops!
I forgot to ask, are you powering the MTH ITAD and the Lionel gate with Track Power or with Accessory/Aux power from the train transformer?
Track power, it is the one that plugs into the real trax
Yup. This is a confusing situation to which neither manufacturer (MTH or Lionel) publishes a "solution."
You can choose to wait to see if someone else has a "better" solution but here's one that you can try that should only take a couple minutes.
1) Swap the red/black wires from your 3-wire Lionel crossing gates to the train transformer. So the RED wire from the crossing gate goes to the Black terminal of the train transformer. And the BLACK wire from the crossing gate goes to the Red terminal of the train transformer.
2) Connect the Yellow wire of the crossing gate to the NO (right-most) terminal of the MTH Realtrax ITAD. The MTH ITAD has a rocker/toggle switch which is set to the "track" position. This is not shown in above photo but presumably it is set this way already.
I believe this will solve your problem. If not, rest assured someone here on OGR will figure this out!
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Fine print: the "technical" reason why I suggest this is the MTH Realtrax ITAD when plugged into Realtrax switches the center-rail to the NO/NC relay contacts. But the Lionel 3-wire 6-14098 gates is looking for a traditional outer-rail trigger on its Yellow trigger wire. My idea is to swap the red/black power wire of the Lionel gate(s) so that the MTH ITAD's NO contact "looks like" an outer-rail trigger.
Wow thank you and I will give it a try tonight when I get home from work. Thank you so much!!
Stan2004, it worked!!! Success thank you so much. What a great community of people helping each other. Wow you learn something new everyday. The reason hobbies like this continue is because of people like yourself helping others. Thank you
A story with a happy ending! 
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