Full Version: Siding switch wiring_Bachmann EZ track
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I am using Bachmann N scale EZ track on my layout. I need wiring help. I am trying to add a yard siding switch toward the outside of my main loop. Switch labeled "A" shorts the track. How do I wire it to make it work?
Weird. Looking at the way you've got it set up, there should be no reason for that turnout to short the layout.

When you say "short", do you mean in the BZORT! sense, as in trains stop everywhere and your powerpack lights up, or short as in no juice past the frog?

How do you have your power feeders arranged? Could there be a pair reversed on your siding?
It matters, but at the same time doesn't, but I have to ask: are you going to use/are you using DCC? Or is it standard DC?

If you're doing standard DC, first of all, I would recommend that you switch to DCC ASAP because it's so awesome, but in any case.

Try making the turnout a completely separate, electrically isolated block. Put insulaters in between each rail on all of the joints between track and turnout, and try it again. It may be that it wasn't isolated properly.
DO you have the feeders connected the right way? The wire that goes to the top rail between A and B should be on the top rail of the siding.

--Randy
The switch was NOT isolated and I am using DCC and DC both by interconnecting the controllers. I have temporarily put the switch in the other direction (where the straight part is in-line with the loop) and it works fine. I also put a terminal railer in the sidings so I can isolate them and run the sidings with the DC Controller and the rest of the layout with DCC. Does that make sense as I dexcribe it?
Did you use insulated rail joiners on the two inner rails at the frog end? Maybe the inner rail power is going through the frog and onto the outer rail when the switch is set to use the turnout.
I had the idea that B'mann EZ track was plug-and-play....No additional wiring needed. If you did isolate that siding, you probably got the feeder(s) reversed...
WHoa, hold up there a second. You have some track connected to DCC and some to DC? I would suggest you stop that IMMEDIATELY. If you have properly gapped the rails, if a loco or lighted car or even anythign with ,metals wheels crosses those gaps and accidently conencts the DC and DCC systems together, you are runnign a very real risk of damaging the DCC syste,m or your DC power pack or both, or even the loco.
If you MUST have the capability to use both, then the output of the DCC should go to one side of a DPDT center off toggle, and the DC pack should connect to the other side. The center terminals then feed the rails. This is the onl fullproof way of switch back and forth with no change for the two to interact.

--Randy
Guess what I found out? The switch is defective! When There is a dead short across it! I took it apart, after using my ohm meter, and found one wire copper tag from the frog too long! it was shorting through the metal cover plate on the bottom of the switch! It wouldn't work no matter where it was in the layout! I previously said I used it in-line w/stright side and it worked, I misspoke! I had four switches laying unused and I must have used a different one.

As far as mixing DC & DCC, the Bachmann DCC controller has a patch cord that connects the two together. The rail connector only comes from the DCC controller. This way, I control my DC locos with the DC controller (through the DCC controller), run the aux. power to switches, etc. from the DC controller supply, and control all DCC locos and equipment with the DCC controller.
jerry1313 Wrote:The switch was NOT isolated and I am using DCC and DC both by interconnecting the controllers. I have temporarily put the switch in the other direction (where the straight part is in-line with the loop) and it works fine. I also put a terminal railer in the sidings so I can isolate them and run the sidings with the DC Controller and the rest of the layout with DCC. Does that make sense as I dexcribe it?

OK, First, what "controllers" are you using? If it's the Bachmann EZ command, then OK, it's designed to do that. If you're using a different system, you may have a problem.

Also, if you're wiring the DC controller AND the DCC controller to the track, without a toggle switch, you're doing it wrong. 35
Squidbait, yes, it is the Bachmann DCC controller and only the DCC is wired to the track. I have tried to fix that blasted switch twice and still haven't found the short in the frog!
Eureka! I finally learned all about Bachmann turnouts internals! I fixed the blasted turenout and no more problems! It had slipped internally, both the rack & pinion and the electric switch cntacts. I took apart a working turnout and made the bad one match, and voila', it works! I am not impressed with the reliability or quality of the product. I purchased 8 turnouts, wyes & track interchanges and had to repair 4 of them. From new out of the box they did not work properly.