wiring a marx crossing signal

Wiring diagram click here.

thanks!

If you are looking for the little "plates" or "clips" that go on the track rails to make the lights flash, they are often available on eeebay, at the moment there are some here.

Like most things Marx, it's a bit funky, but very effective: it gives a more realistic flashing effect than the more elaborate and expensive (and unreliable) Lionel bimetalic mechanism.

david

david,  I'm looking at the diagram again.  there are 3 pieces of track shown.  it looks like the two outer terminals go to the ground rail and the center wire goes to the middle rail which uses the clip you sent me the link to.  is the center piece of track isolated in some way from the track on either side?  also, I'm not sure if this works or not.  to test with a transformer to I attach outer terminals (both) to ground and then touch center terminal with power??  thanks, jeff

The middle terminal goes to the center rail and connected by a lock on.  The two outer ones go to the ground rail and are ativated by the wheels of the train.  You may have to adjust the distance of the two clips to get the desired effect...

Marty

You can buy the same plate/track clip as mentioned above from Robert Grossman for $ 2.50 and save yourself a little over $ 4.00 each OR you can buy a 7 inch long clip from Grossman for $ 3.50 and cut it into 4 pcs and solder wires on yourself and save even more.

Grossman's is the place for Marx parts... I was searching his parts list and didn't find the track clips this time.

The center terminal is hot 12V.  It can connect to the center rail with a lock-on, or connect to aux accessory power at your transformer.  The other two terminals are the grounds for the two lights.  The track clips are actually insulated on the underside, so when they are clipped on the outer rail they are NOT grounded.  Only when the train passes, the track clip will ground through the car's wheels and axles to the other outer rail, giving intermittent good ground to each light causing it to flash on, as wheel pass over the clips.  

So when a train passes over the clips, you get a lot of fast flashing of the two lights, not necessarily alternating, as the various wheels contact the two clips.  It's a bit random, but it's still better (IMHO) than the delay warmup time and then both lights flashing together, which is the best Lionel could do back then.

To test, put 12v to the center terminal and ground to one side terminal and then the other; one light should light up for each side terminal grounded.

d

The rail clips are listed under accessories... # 367 rail clip... 7 inches long $ 3.50

# 368 rail clip.... 1 1/2 inches long... $ 2.50. I use Grossman's all the time for my MARX parts.. 

If you're more interested in accurate operation, rather than historic accuracy, you can use a Lionel 154C and you will get a slightly better-looking operation.

The ultimate method is to use a circuit that gives you the alternating flashes derived electronically, and triggered by an insulated rail. There are several manufacturers who sell them.  Dallee, and several from China in Ebay.

Yeah, but Marx did pretty well with 1930's technology and a lot of ingenuity and at a fraction of Lionel's price.

lv601, thanks for the numbers, I see them now.

chinatrain, for Grossman's parts list click here, scroll down til you find 367 and 368 in the left column.  Great source for all Marx parts.

david

still a tad confused.  of the 3 10" pieces of track in the diagram, a wire goes to far left piece's outer rail and a wire goes to far right pieces outer rail.  a "hot wire" goes to the middle rail (center rail).  2 questions:

1)  is any of this track an isolated section?

2)  can't you just solder the wire to the undersides of the track?

chinatrain99

the original Marx pieces had an insulator under them so slipping them over the outside rail effectively gives you an insulated section without having to cut the rail

then when the train wheels bridge from the other rail to the insulated slip on section the circuit is completed back to the center rail

Scotie

None of the track is isolated. As Scoti notes, the track clips are Marx's way of doing it without isolated track sections.

You cannot solder the leads to the track because then they would be grounded all the time and the lights would be on all the time.

Just hook the center terminal to center rail or 12v transformer,

get a couple of Marx track clips for the other two terminals, 

squeeze them both onto the same outside rail about 6" or so apart,

then run a train over it.

d

Here is another way

LINK

Dale H