hello,
my name is Travis Stevens & i've been lurking on the forum for a while - first post. long story short, always done floor layouts seasonally & they just get bigger & bigger. i had to take an 8 yr break until last year setting up my layout as the house i was in just wasn't right to do it, but now i am in a new house & proof of concept layout last xmas was a success! in the 8 yrs i did not set up a layout i kept collecting & now have many TMCC & PS2/3 locos. with my latest floor empire layout (thru 4 separate rooms & hallway) i want to have several toggled power sidings for these command engines & in keeping with the floor empire 'feel', i found this style switch to possibly use to power those sidings (see attached pic)
These switches are 'Philmore # 30-9851 rated at 10 amp 125v AC, internal screw terminals inside with brass plates then soldered to the terminals of the rocker switch.
my plan is to use 1 channel of my TIU powered by a brick & connected to an mth terminal block with 14 gauge wire & then make individual runs to the hot/center rail isolated sidings (16 gauge wire) with these switches on each end. in operation the brick would be 'off' & when i needed to power up a loco i would select the desired switch to 'on', then power up brick, brick would power TIU channel, watch dog signal or TMCC signal goes out, select engine & bring it out on main line(s) & then toggle siding off / brick off. any one see any issues with using this type of switch for this purpose? would these be the'cheap type' to avoid?
thanks!
-travis
I used these on my carpet layout to power sidings, they even had a power LED to show me when the siding was hot.
