While I have quite a few Ross switches on the layout I am building, I have not run any "small" engines. I do have a Ross doubleslip switch. I have all the power wires the switch came with (5 in total if I remember correctly - 4 for the 4 center rails, 1 for the "diamond" in the middle) connected to the same ZW-L output. I have  mainline #1 that passes through the switch, and the other switch possibilites are to feed a yard on one side of the mainline #1, or mainline #2 of the other side of mainline #1. I isolated the center rail of the leg that feeds mainline #2. Mainline #2 is powered by another output of the ZW-L. So a temporary short as a train moves from mainline #1 or yard to mainline #2 is tolerated by the ZW-L.

I had stall problem with running a 3rd Rail PRR K-4 through the doubleswitch mainline at crawl speed. Running at a higher speed was okay. Need a pickup roller added to tender to prevent this.

Running Lionel Legacy Big Boy at a crawl, sound system in tender would momentarily shut down (no battery installed). Installed one of your YLB to solve problem.

Double Slip  I just wired as the diagram shows

072s no.

The longer switches yes.

I suggest avoiding the lead rail powering/switching as there are random side effects the can show up as shorts as a train progresses through the switch.  Fast acting circuit breakers will interrupt power enough to stop the train.  That’s my 2 cents

I use the ZStuff 1008 relay on a 96/72 curved switch, had to.  I don’t need them on a normal 72, but don’t have the other ones you mention.  Works great.

I have the Ross yard starter switch and needed to add a relay because we were losing ground on some engines.  I think it had to do with the O72 wye to the left and some newer diesels having tires on only one side of both trucks, thus relying on fewer wheels for ground.  But this fixed the problem.  The relay is an old Xerox part my dad had lying around from his working days.

Nathan

John,

I did all my Ross switches for the same reasons you mentioned because I had a wide variety of engines that intermittently stalled.  The relays solved the problem completely.  I use 12 v relays from Digi-key, part no. Z221-ND.  Word of warning, if a car is sitting on the switch and the position of the switch gets changed, you will get a short on the transformer, sometimes the circuit breaker does not throw, in which case your only warning is the smell of smoldering electronics.  This happens almost exclusively in my yard when a train extends over a wye switch but I forget what I am doing and throw a switch that shouldn't be thrown.  I have yet to burn out any relays because I detect the situation fairly quickly.

Dave

Thanks for all the input guys.  I realized after someone pointed it out that the double-slip switches will most certainly need the relays.  I was measuring from the rail to the powered diamond.  However, if the two rollers span the diamond, they're in no-man's land, and there no power to be had!  DUH!  I guess Ross knew what they were talking about when they specified relays for those.

@Milwaukee Road Dave posted:

I use 12 v relays from Digi-key, part no. Z221-ND.  Word of warning, if a car is sitting on the switch and the position of the switch gets changed, you will get a short on the transformer, sometimes the circuit breaker does not throw, in which case your only warning is the smell of smoldering electronics.  This happens almost exclusively in my yard when a train extends over a wye switch but I forget what I am doing and throw a switch that shouldn't be thrown.  I have yet to burn out any relays because I detect the situation fairly quickly.

Dave

How did you wire that particular relay, I'm using the DZ-2500 switch machines?  If there's a shorting issue, I may add a PTC to the power in to insure no fireworks, it's only powering a couple inches of rail.

I know how to wire the DZ-1008 relay, I was asking about the Digikey one mentioned.  Just wondering where the 12VDC for the coil was coming from.

John,

I wired them to LVTs that were in the vicinity of each install (LVTs used for lighting of dwarf signals, switch machines, building lighting etc.), I did about 50 switches.

Dave

OK, since I don't have those "in the vicinity", I may use the DZ-1008 relays.

I don't have the track powered yet, still installing track and dropping wires under the table.  However, I'm going to power up a couple sections and do some test runs with the smaller stuff over various switches.  I can see clearly that I need to do the double-slip switches, that's a no-brainer now that I think about the issue.  I suspect I may have to do the curved switches as well, those seem marginal.  However, the 10x and 20x and O72 switches seem to have a very short span and might not have an issue, testing should tell.  When I get to my yard, I have two of the 4-way switches, I'm sure those will take some doctoring for reliable transit.

OK, tested the switches with the two small engines I pictured in the first post, I believe they're the most problematic I have.  The results are in.

The double-slip switches are no contest, I didn't even test those, they get relays.  It's obvious now they'd be a huge problem with many engines, don't know why I didn't spot that right up front.  I plead ignorance, I've never used the DSS units before.

The O96/O72 curves were close, but the O96 side stops the BEEP, the gap is maybe 1/4" or less too wide for it's rollers.  Just a light "tap" on it's rear got it on it's way again.  The slightly wider spaced rollers of the RMT speeder make it through with no problem.  So, those will switches will get relays as well.  The O72 and #10x and #20x switches, no sweat at all, they breezed right through at the lowest speed steps (both are TMCC), so I don't think I'll be screwing around with relays on those.  Trying not to make more work than I need to up front.

Thanks all for the comments, I think I know where I'm going now.

@Milwaukee Road Dave posted:

I did all my Ross switches for the same reasons you mentioned because I had a wide variety of engines that intermittently stalled.  The relays solved the problem completely.  I use 12 v relays from Digi-key, part no. Z221-ND.

I looked at this relay for a similar application, but the coils are designed for DC.  Are you using them with AC accessory power successfully? Any of them burn out?

I am using 9v DC transformers to power the relays...so far all have performed flawlessly and are still intact.

I came up with an improved relay board for my switches, so far they seem to be working great.

Replacement for DZ-1008 Relay for Ross Switch Powered Rails