Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

User avatar
zebedeesknees
Posts: 330
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:15 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby zebedeesknees » Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:51 pm

nigelcliffe wrote:Must be dozens of methods....

a) (For DCC), just use devices called "frog juicers" and you're done. That works at testing, works when finished. But not everyone is totally sold on the concept (I'm a bit sceptical).

b) if under-baseboard tiebars exist for your turnouts, then pretty simple to arrange a microswitch to move as tiebar is moved. Sometimes placing switch with a roller that engages/disengages in a notch in the tie bar can be easier to adjust for movement.

c) (left for next person to add c, d, e, etc..).


z) Battery in loco and radio control; frog polarity doesn't matter any more. (nor do wires, pickups, etc...)

Ted.
This topic originated at https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=7934 but was too far off topic.
Last edited by grovenor-2685 on Wed Feb 02, 2022 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Addition of note re:origin.
(A purists' purist)

colinglenister
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:55 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby colinglenister » Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:54 pm

A bit expensive Ted?

User avatar
zebedeesknees
Posts: 330
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:15 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby zebedeesknees » Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:13 pm

colinglenister wrote:A bit expensive Ted?

That depends on how you value your time Colin!

Ted.
(A purists' purist)

User avatar
Jol Wilkinson
Posts: 1113
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:39 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Mon Jan 31, 2022 5:32 pm

zebedeesknees wrote:
colinglenister wrote:A bit expensive Ted?

That depends on how you value your time Colin!

Ted.


And the practicality of fitting a receiver and battery to your stock, especially if you have already built it.

User avatar
zebedeesknees
Posts: 330
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:15 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby zebedeesknees » Mon Jan 31, 2022 6:29 pm

Jol Wilkinson wrote:
zebedeesknees wrote:
colinglenister wrote:A bit expensive Ted?

That depends on how you value your time Colin!

Ted.


And the practicality of fitting a receiver and battery to your stock, especially if you have already built it.


If you can separate the chassis from the body Jol, I submit that that rarely applies. Even less if the loco has a tender.

Sealing a model so that you can't get to the motor would be ill-advised at the least! And if you can get to the motor, fitting an Rx and a small battery is a breeze.

You don't have to do all your stock at once either, a single radio equipped loco will run anywhere on any track, even if it has DCC power at the time.

You're not going to try it though, Jol?

Ted.
(A purists' purist)

User avatar
Jol Wilkinson
Posts: 1113
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:39 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Mon Jan 31, 2022 6:50 pm

Ted,

small pre-group etched kit locos don't have much room and usually some of that has to have ballast in it. A battery may provide some of that but not enough on its own. Tender "bodies" tend to be unitary so can't be readily opened up. Some have relatively little useable space in them anyway (without fairly considerable modification), compared to the much larger tenders used later. It was this lack of space that deterred me from going over to DCC many years ago when decoders were too large to fit in readily.

A friend has been experimenting with R/C for several years but as a newcomer to railway modelling and with little experience of electronics he has found difficult in sourcing products to enable him to make much progress. Driving his small GWR RTR radio equipped loco on the kitchen table is an amusing experience though.

Jol

User avatar
zebedeesknees
Posts: 330
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:15 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby zebedeesknees » Tue Feb 01, 2022 12:03 pm

Jol Wilkinson wrote:Ted,

small pre-group etched kit locos don't have much room and usually some of that has to have ballast in it. A battery may provide some of that but not enough on its own. Tender "bodies" tend to be unitary so can't be readily opened up. Some have relatively little useable space in them anyway (without fairly considerable modification), compared to the much larger tenders used later. It was this lack of space that deterred me from going over to DCC many years ago when decoders were too large to fit in readily.

A friend has been experimenting with R/C for several years but as a newcomer to railway modelling and with little experience of electronics he has found difficult in sourcing products to enable him to make much progress. Driving his small GWR RTR radio equipped loco on the kitchen table is an amusing experience though.

Jol


You are not trying to be negative are you Jol?

How many 'small pre-group etched kit locos' have you built or even seen in 4mm scale?

One problem with the latest Li-Po batteries is that unlike the Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh that we are all used to is that they are lighter. Of course, sprung suspension helps a lot there, maintaining traction.
Almost all of the tender bodies in my collection come apart, leaving plenty of space for quite large batteries.

As for space, did you miss this at the time?:-
viewtopic.php?f=137&t=7113&p=78459&hilit=5+volt#p78459

Scroll down to the dismantled Simplex - battery, Rx, sprung suspension - all in OO9! Please show me a smaller tender in 18.83.

Perhaps you should give this friend (if he isn't apocryphal) my email address, J.R. has it if you do not, for I would be delighted to offer him assistance.

Ted.
(A purists' purist)

User avatar
Jol Wilkinson
Posts: 1113
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:39 pm

Re: NEED A RELIABLE MECHANICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN TURNOUT & FROG POLARITY SWITCH

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:11 am

zebedeesknees wrote:
Jol Wilkinson wrote:Ted,

small pre-group etched kit locos don't have much room and usually some of that has to have ballast in it. A battery may provide some of that but not enough on its own. Tender "bodies" tend to be unitary so can't be readily opened up. Some have relatively little useable space in them anyway (without fairly considerable modification), compared to the much larger tenders used later. It was this lack of space that deterred me from going over to DCC many years ago when decoders were too large to fit in readily.

A friend has been experimenting with R/C for several years but as a newcomer to railway modelling and with little experience of electronics he has found difficult in sourcing products to enable him to make much progress. Driving his small GWR RTR radio equipped loco on the kitchen table is an amusing experience though.

Jol


You are not trying to be negative are you Jol?

How many 'small pre-group etched kit locos' have you built or even seen in 4mm scale?

One problem with the latest Li-Po batteries is that unlike the Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh that we are all used to is that they are lighter. Of course, sprung suspension helps a lot there, maintaining traction.
Almost all of the tender bodies in my collection come apart, leaving plenty of space for quite large batteries.

As for space, did you miss this at the time?:-
viewtopic.php?f=137&t=7113&p=78459&hilit=5+volt#p78459

Scroll down to the dismantled Simplex - battery, Rx, sprung suspension - all in OO9! Please show me a smaller tender in 18.83.

Perhaps you should give this friend (if he isn't apocryphal) my email address, J.R. has it if you do not, for I would be delighted to offer him assistance.

Ted.


Ted,

this diversion is rather outside the original topic, but clearly you want an answer to can respond in your usual challenging way.

How many pre-group locos have I built? Enough to know what I am talking about. None of the tenders for the locos I have built over thirty or more years have tender bodies that come apart to insert a battery or loudspeaker. They would have to be considerably modified at the assembly stage. Further, most pre-pre-group tenders were smaller than the later Big Four tenders, with much less overall volume. How many pre-group locos have I seen, about fifty more or so, as most of my friends and fellow AG colleagues take interested in pre-group or early post grouping.

Yes I have seen the topic in the link above.

Clearly you enjoy pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in certain areas and being evangelistic about it. What you fail to do is recognise and accept that others may prefer to tread a different path and are happy to do so.

Jol


Return to “Radio Control”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ClaudeBot and 0 guests