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I Still Hate Point Motors

ian

Entry posted by ian

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Having made some good progress with the scenery on the 'country' end board the scenic machine was ready to roll onto the middle (station) board. First I thought I'd sort out a couple of niggles whilst I could still flip the board over and lay it on its back.

 

I had changed the socket postition from on top of the boards behind the backscene to a more conventional under baseboard location, so I had to make up a new 25-way socket with longer wires to replace one of them and had to build a pair of brackets to house them. Then I had to migrate the wiring from the old socket to the new one.:icon_mutter: Not the most fun way to spend an evening, but it's done now.

 

Now the biggy. Point motors.

 

The middle board has four points making up two crossovers. One pair powered by a Peco/Seep combination (see previous entries for the story behind this), the other by a pair of Pecos. Oomph is supplied by a DCC Concepts MasterSwitch for each pair. The Peco/Seep crosover behaves itself (touch wood) but the Peco/Peco one had a tendency not to throw completely on one or other of the points.

 

So, leaving the motors wired in I disconnected them from the points - they threw but were a bit weedy, so another couple of Seeps were substituted. (Having made up a pair of mounting plates to cover the Peco hole.) The Seeps were mounted, the over-centre springs removed and a quick jolt of 16V AC confirmed that they were up to the job.

 

The next thing was to wire them in and then stand back and throw the switch. They twitched. Right. Unplug the baseboard and try applying 16V AC at the socket end of their wiring run. Snap.

 

Plug the cable back in. Open up the control panel, disconnect from the MasterSwitch and try 16V AC at that end of the wiring run. Snap.

Take the MasterSwitch out and put in a spare. Twitch.

 

Now this particular crossover needs a lot of circuits making and breaking. Three signals, one track feed, two live frogs and panel LEDs. Most of these are performed by a pair of relays run from one pole of the panel switch - the other controls the MasterSwitch which looks after the panel LEDs. The frogs are switched by the point motors.

 

So I can't change the panel switch. Connect the switch to the CDU instead of the MasterSwitch and add a large pushbutton - who needs panel LEDs anyway? Press the button. A bigger twitch, but still a twitch.

 

Right, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Connect directly to the 16V AC instead of the CDU. Don protective clothing and press the button. Snap. Hurrah!

 

As I said. I hate point motors.

 

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SNCF stephen

I can imagine when the car was originally set alight that services on the line would have been suspended for a while. Those pesky kids....

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Southernboy

I also like the burnt-out car. It looks excellent.

 

If you're talking about Masterswitches as in those from the Australian manufacturer DCC Design Concepts, then you don't need panel LEDs because you can use a double throw (on - on) switch (rather than a toggle switch). As long as you wire it the right way round then the way the switch is pointing indicates the direction the points are set on your mimic board.

It saves on wiring and the amount of clutter under your control panel :)

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Ravenser

I take it the car was originally owned by the man who designed the point motors? Having some problems with my own point motors (tortoises in OO on Marcway) in this department I know how you feel

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  • RMweb Gold
ian
  • RMweb Gold
I take it the car was originally owned by the man who designed the point motors? Having some problems with my own point motors (tortoises in OO on Marcway) in this department I know how you feel

If I find who designed the point motors there'll be a small figure dangling in a noose from the bridge :mad:

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