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I’m making a control panel for my layout and plan on having spst power switches to be able to turn power off to my sidings. I’d like to have a 5mm led that is connected to this switch so that when the track is powered, the led it lit. I’ve tried making this circuit but have not had any success. Do any of you know how I can complete this?

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Austin I used DPST switches and have track power to one set of poles and 4 VDC power supply to the second set to power indicator lights for everything. Works great for me. This photo is before I finished all the wiring but every track has a switch and a LED the top row is the whisker tracks and I used rotary switches there and a LED for every whisker track. If you would like to see more photos of how I did it I would be happy to take them and send them to you.

04D3975C-DEDE-4A5E-874C-426111979395

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Although not prototypical, I added LED lights to some of my bumpers using DPST switches as described by BJT above.   Bumpers in my yard are illuminated via track power.   At the moment I've installed incandescent  in the yard.  AC powered LED bulbs are available from Town and Country Hobby eliminating the need for didoes and resistors.

I don't have individual toggle switches controlling individual lanes in my yard due to a lack of control panel real estate.  DCS routing sets the turnout positions.  Once the turnouts are aligned, turnout position feedback provides a track power enable signal  for the selected lane.  The push of a single momentary switch apples power to the selected lane.  There is only one push button switch applying power for the entire yard.  When track power is applied the selected lane bumper illuminates.  A LED illuminates on a wall mounted "train board" when the turnouts have successfully aligned.   Since my yard is at a distance with limited visibility I have trouble telling which lane I want to power up.  I'm installing a 7 segment numerical display over each yard lane indicating the lane number.  The displays changes color (red/green) when track power is applied.

Last edited by shorling

You can power the LED's from the track power if you add a resistor for each LED and a common single diode to protect all the indicator LED's.

So I plan to have 6 sidings that all come out of one bud power terminal. When wired up correctly it should be: power source>toggle switch>resister>diode>LED>track for each track? Or would I need a second diode to convert the dc back to ac for the track?

I have the track side of the switch go to the positive side of the respective LED through a 1K resistor.   All the negative leads of the LED's are common and go to the anode of a diode, I use the common 1N4003 as I have thousands of them.  The cathode of the diode goes to the outside rail (track common).

I drew a diagram to make sure I’m understanding this correctly. 1. Does this look right? And 2. I only need one diode per track?

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