Good afternoon, new member and all that.
I am not new to model railways but new to bigger than an oval and a siding…..
I designed and built my rather space constricted 00 gauge railway (6'x4') to get as much movement and variety as I could, I am happy with the layout etc but I fear I have fallen down a bit of rabbit hole.
I needed a new controller and settled on the Morley Vortrak Zero Ten Controller (the 4 track controller), it’s great, super smooth control and looks cool, very retro.
But since I have found out as others on this forum have stated, off is not actually off but is a shade of grey….. So I have had to put insulators between the 4 track circuits marked on my drawing a & b (between the points connecting tracks 1 and 2) and at c and d (as decreed by Morley or there will be a plague of Locusts etc befalling me and my 5 year warranty).
So unless I use my one very modern loco (pickups on the one bogie and even then it sometimes stalls) all my other older and slower locos stop dead on the cross over (unless I run them at full tilt and even then 90% won’t get over….) until the 00 gauge hand of God gives it a nudge (how realistic) Morley states one only needs to match the speed of the 2 controllers but as it isn’t a common return it’s never going to work (so why say it?)
I have thought about putting an isolating switch on each circuit, but to move a loco say from circuit 1 to circuit 2 it would be:
Stop loco, isolate circuits 1 and 2, change points, energise circuit 2, move loco, stop loco, change points, reenergise circuit 1.
If I forget and change points without isolating, pop, if a loco fouls the points and possibly moves them, pop…. Have I dug myself a bit of a hole?
Thank you in advance for any help but bear in mind I can’t solder to save mine or anyone else’s life….