I am looking for a different option to control my fastrack turnouts-I don’t have room for the stock controllers that come with the turnouts. I have seen people mention that they use momentary on/off switches to activate turnouts, but I just can’t seem to find an explanation of how to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Replies sorted oldest to newest
It's easy. There are 3 wires or terminals on a remote or command Fastrack switch.
Thru- originally a green wire to the controller
Out- Means turn out or diverge from straight- red wire to controller
GND- the common and a black wire to the original controller.
You are simply connecting a momentary pushbutton between the "Thru" and "Out" connections and then common to the GND.
Also important, the RSC lights connection is what gives the status but that is a plus or minus 5V signal compared to GND. Be extremely cautious connecting anything to that terminal as you can damage the internal switch controller electronics. It's meant to drive the LEDs in the remote switch controller or the LCS switch monitor module. It can be used for your own DIY LED indicators again, just saying know and understand what that wire is, and how it works (plus and minus 5V to indicate switch status).
Sounds like you could use mini push button momentary switches. I have dozens of them working my Marx switches for over 40 years. I used to get them from Radio Shack but now use eBay (10 for $7, 50 for $15 free shipping).
Track plan control panel below has Red and Green mini push button switches switches. Blue and white ones for Uncoupling sections of track. Some are used to operate two switches at a time, so you can see they are big enough for the load of a switch. There are dozens of mini slide switches for lights, accessories and two trains for one track operation and several more mini push button switches on the left and right of the diagram for whistles in buildings and horns in two Bachmann oil tanks. Lionel LW train only transformers for two loops is further to the left and right. And further to the left is a crank knob for the $10 homemade turntable rotation via an old cloths dryer belt.
The layout has 33 Marx switches, on two diagram control panels and you can see how compact my switches are compared to Lionel or Marx switch controllers.
Charlie
Vernon that is just what I needed to hear. That would have been my guess, but I still don’t trust my instincts with modern model trains! I’m building my first around the wall layout with a duck under hinged bridge and I want to mount the control for each turnout on the fascia border near the turnout since I use a DCS hand held remote to operate the trains. Thanks for taking the time to answer my query. Charlie-I love the look of your control panel. Kind of old school. Very cool!
Daddy
Thanks for the comment on the control panel. Here is picture to show how compact the controls are using lots of those mini push button switches. More details were added to prior post.
Sounds like you are getting on with mini switches for your turnouts.
Charlie
Ok. So I wired up a turnout this morning to the one momentary switch that I have. Pushed the button and nothing happened. Clearly I am missing something. Here is how I wired it up to test it. Charlie-that is a very cool layout. The chicken head switch for the turntable is awesome! Thanks for the help!
You're quite close. Try this version. You can get by with one pushbutton for now but you'll only be able to move the points in one direction since you need to have a second button to move them back:
Mike
Thanks Mike. That definitely makes more sense! Hoping to find some time soon to try it. I’ll post my results.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
