Ross Switch/Legacy Question

Yes, but the Datawire driver has to be Legacy ready. They were doing a mod to them for awhile, not sure if they have updated them all out of the factory now

Since a wire has to be run to the Ross switch, and given I have an unused SC-2 am I better off running the 3 wires from the SC-2 to the switch, thereby avoiding hooking up with the Legacy serial port (which seems to cause various folks problems from time to time).  If I go the SC-2 approach would I order a different model switch than the DZ2500?

Thanks.

If you have new DZ-2500 switch machines and a new DZ-2001 data driver, everything should work well without the added complexity or expense of SC-2s.

To run all my DZ-2500 equipped turnouts I ran a single 18 AWG -3 conductor wire all the way around the layout; two conductors for 14v power (red and black) and one connected to the white data wire off the DZ-2001.  The blue data wire off each DZ-2500 is attached to this one white data wire.  This is all you really need if you plan to use the CAB-1/1L/2 to control your switches.  Adding the DZ-2502 manual controller adds a little more complexity but a lot more flexibility.

Attached is a very rough sketch I did to help me visualize how to wire my switches.  For my #4 and #5 switches, I do not use the DZ-1008 relay (I may in the future to control signals).  For my longer switches I use the relay to alternate power the lead rails so my smaller engines can get through the switch.

Hope this helps.

Ron

Thanks for the diagram. You mentioned 14 volt power.  Can I use my 18 volt track power for the Ross switches?

I use a K-Line accessory transformer and power the DZ2500's at 14 volts. I also use Legacy and the data wire driver. I had one of the original pre-Legacy ones and never had any problems.

You can program routes, I set up my 4way yard this way to avoid derailments, by following the instructions in the Lionel SC2 manual. Works very well.