Roco Switches

[CNJ774]

Howdy everyone.
I was recently given a box full of Roco right and left handed HO switches. They have a rubber like flexible roadbed and what I believe to be built in switch motors that seem to be wired into the track (DCC ready?). Has anyone ever used these and if so, does anyone have any info on how to wire these up and or any diagrams on the motor unit? Thanks everyone, David Notarius, out in the wastelands of the Cambridgeshire Fens, UK ex New Hope PA

[e-paw]

Got a pic or two of the offending switches?

[shortliner]

David, if you haven't already done so, it may be worth a query on RMweb, a UK site - there are a lot of very knowledgeable people on there, and it has a continental section

[CNJ774]

Howdy, attached are photos of one of the switches. Hope this is useful. Will have a look at the RMweb pages. Thanks - Dave

[faraway]

I use those old Roco switches in my staging yard. The switch machine can be run with DCC. just connect the black wires to the rails. The green wire connects to one of the rails for programming only and is disconnected otherwise.
Programming is very easy. Connect the green wire and talk to DCC switch e.g. #99, disconnect the green wire and the switch will be #99.

The current staging yard had 2011 some scenery. This photo shows them "in action" with most of the rubber removed.


The frog is a problem. US wheels do not fit to well. They "fall" into the gap. There is usually no derail situation but it looks and sounds awfully. Small brass pieces to be glued into the frog have been available at the time when they have been on the market.
You are in luck. There is one of this very old sets on German eBay

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Roco-H0-98020-Her...Sw4A5YvoFh

Hint: switch = Weiche, frog = Herzstück, Versand nach: Weltweit = shipping world wide.

ps. "old Roco switches" because Roco had some similar looking switches several years later. I do not know anything about that switches. I was in US modeling and used Atlas at that time.

[Schraddel]

David,
it seemed to me these are Roco Line Bettungsweichenantrieb and have a integrated DCC decoder. You should be able to read the adress with a DCC command station. If it is DCC equipped, there are only two wires coming out of the switch machine. When the swich is built into the layout, these 2 wires will be connected, one to left rail and the other to right rail.
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If there are 3 wires, then it is probably a anologue two coil switch machine. One wire is for common, the other two for left coil or right coil.
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my 2 Cents