Hi, Chuck.

Didn't I reply to this yesterday? 

Where did my reply go?

Did you get the info before it vanished?

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Dear Gene,

http://www.walthers.com/instructions/0933/09330000002829.pdf

It's a downloadable Adobe file link found at:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2829

Note the snip of the Walthers instructions ends about 1/3 of the way down my last post. 

I wrote the last 2/3.

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Dear Gene,

Found this at the Walthers website: (HO 130' TT instruction manual)

"Your new turntable automatically reverses track polarity when turned."

(COMMENT: No DCC auto reversing unit needed.)

"As a result, the unit has two electrically insulated areas where the track on the bridge is not powered.

These are identified on the underside of the lip by the "NO TRACK" lettering (also shown on the mounting template).

Working approach and fan tracks must be installed away from these areas – we suggest placing them at 90° to the approach tracks.

You can, however, add an unpowered display track at these points if desired."

(end instruction quotes)

Polarizing the bridge and stall tracks would be simple with an Ohm-meter:

Turn the DCC system off. 

Use the main approach track (correctly polarized with the rest of the layout) as your "standard polarity". 

Hook track power (DCC Bus Feeder) wires up to B1 and B2. 

Rotate either end of the bridge to line up with the approach track.  Check that the right rail of the bridge has continuity (low Ohms connection) with the right rail of the approach track.  Left bridge rail, left approch rail also.  If not, swap the wires on B1 and B2 and re-check. 

Rotate either end of the bridge to any one of your stall tracks.  While holding down (activating) the momentary switch for that stall track, check that the right rail of the bridge has continuity with the right rail of the stall track.  Left bridge rail, left stall rail also.  If not, swap Atlas joiner/power leads on that stall track and re-check. 

Repeat for each stall track.

The "No Track" area must not fall between an approach track and an adjacent "run-around" track (if one exists on your layout).

If you have 2 approach tracks from the same mainline, one from the east, the other from the west, the "No Track" area must fall between the two approach tracks.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Gene,

Congrats on all of your progress. 

Polsgrove's article covers DCC power to the roundhouse tracks, but without a control panel.  You want a control panel.

Re-reading your 3-9-07 post I now see that your "slowly -- very slowly - convert to DCC" comment refers to your many locos, not your layout.           

I mis-read "Atlas above table remote machine" in your 8-30-08 reply as "Atlas above table turntable with motor". 

So much for speed reading.     

A mention of your "brand and type" of turntable and other critical info in your 9-17-08 question would have helped us give you the answer you were looking for. 

Your replied "I broke down and bought Atlas joiners/power leads and slid them completely onto the rails".  With all your skills and experience you weren't asking us (9-17-08) how to connect power leads (wires) to a track section's rails, were you? 

All I can add is to use a momentary (called "push-button" by some?) switch between the track power bus and the track.

Is it hard to run a DCC controller with one hand?  If you wanted to get really fancy, you could engineer a "20 seconds on" timer circuit so as not to have to hold down the momentary switch while running the DCC loco in or out of the stall.  Another thought: momentary foot or knee switches to free up 2 hands for the DCC controller.  Still another thought:  Set (push) the DCC handheld controller down on top of the momentary switch for that stall.   

Which questions were not answered in your previous thread "powering track in roundhouse" of 6-25-08?

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,5928.0.html

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

edit: change "track" to "track section's rails"
edit: add "Still another thought: Set....stall."

Dear Gene,

In earlier postings of this thread your plans were to convert to DCC. 

Here is a superb MR article by Mike Polsgrove on wiring a locomotive DCC decoder into a motorized turntable:

DCC corner: Wiring a DCC turntable
Model Railroader, November 2003 page 115
( COMMAND, CONTROL, DCC, DIGITAL, ELECTRONICS, "POLSGROVE, MIKE", TURNTABLE, MR )

It is completely DCC controller driven, no control panel needed.  A relay that powers all the roundhouse tracks is driven by the headlight output of the locomotive decoder. 

His schematic calls for a reversing module, yet I'm pretty sure that the Atlas turntable switches polarity on the bridge rails as the table rotates every 180 degrees, so it shouldn't be needed.

I'm not sure of the instructions that come with the turntable.  Atlas Book #12, "The Complete Atlas Wiring Book", shows that one side the TT roundhouse and approach tracks are "A" polarity, the other side "B" (or the opposite) polarity.  Be careful to observe each track's polarity when hooking them up to the roundhouse track power relay. 

Be careful to wire up the bridge track's power to match the polarity of the (always powered) approach track(s).  If you have a run-around track, (dual-adjacent approach tracks?) I would make sure that both are "A" polarity, or both "B" polarity, but not a mix.       

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Dear albzal,

Here are some dealers from before the Bachmann purchase of Williams.

You may find some with small amounts of (new) old stock to sell. 

http://web.archive.org/web/20060617010949/http://williamstrains.com/HTML/FindADealer.html#CA

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Dear All,

Factory Direct Trains has some nice pictures of the #5 and #6 turnouts that can be enlarged on their website.  I took a few measurements off my screen with a ruler.  Though these are better estimates than before, there can still be some inaccuracies.  You would need them in your hands to do a better measurement.   

Better guess (ruler on computer screen):

#5 pair double mainline spacing:  3-3/8"

#6 pair double mainline spacing:  4-1/8"

My apologies for being so far off with the earlier # 5 guess.  You can get closer to a 4" spacing by adding a 3" straight between the #5 pair.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik   

Dear Jack,

Thanks for the kind words.

Curves can be confusing.  The term "Degrees of Curvature" is used in surveying and laying track on the 1:1 railroads.  We will avoid that term for now and just concentrate on simple

"Magnetic Needle Compass" degrees.

A compass has a face that is divided into 360 degrees.  Zero degrees points North, 90 degrees points East, 180 degrees points South, 270 degrees points West, and 360 (or zero) degrees points North again.

Imagine a miniature engineer going around a circle of sectional track.  If he looked at his compass each time he came to a new track section, he would notice his compass had changed the exact # of degrees as his section of track. 

360 degrees / # of sections of track per circle = # of degrees per section. 

Same equation switched around:

360 degrees / # of degrees per section = # of sections of track per circle.

Example: 18"R sectional track comes in 30 degree sections.  360/30 = 12 sections of track per circle. 

Example: 26"R sectional track is 20 per circle.  360/20 = 18 degrees per section. 

Example: Grandpa gives junior a box of 18"R half curves.  (As above, 18"R full curves are 30 degree sections.)  How many does he need to make a full circle?

Half sections must be 30/2 = 15 degrees per half section.  360/15 = 24 half sections per full circle.

Advanced:  ToysAmI wants to make sectional curved track that can turn 90 degrees (= one quarter circle).  What are his choices for degrees per section? 

Answers:
90/1 = 90 degrees per section,
90/2 = 45 dps,
90/3 = 30 dps,
90/4 = 22.5 dps,
90/5 = 18 dps,
90/6 = 15 dps,
90/7 ?=? 12.86 dps,
90/8 = 11.25 dps,
90/9 = 10 dps,
90/10 = 9 dps
etc. 

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

edit: spelling   

A question was asked about easements on another thread.  Here is the "meat" of my reply:

"The easiest pseudo-easements using EZ-Track would be:

a 33-1/4"R 18 degree section leading into a
26"R curve, and

a 35-1/2"R 18 degree section leading into a
28"R curve."

Here are two others I have thought up:

33-1/4"R-12 degree section leading into a
26"R-18 degree section leading into a
18"R curve.

Same two leading into a
15"R curve (perhaps overkill).

So far, these examples have the perfect # of degrees, and are symmetrical (split into mirror images) at 90 degrees. 

Future examples may not have both.

Remember that ovals with easements or pseudo-easements take up more space than ovals without. 

You would need flex track to create "bent stick" or "spiral" (real) easements. 

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

edit: spelling

Just to clarify,

Snap-Track is a trade mark of Atlas, and has no roadbed.  Most hobbyists use cork roadbed with it.   

From Wiki:

"This prefabricated snap-together track, sometimes called "snap track" — a trade name used by Atlas Model Railroad, which manufactures the track used in many HO scale toy train sets in North America — is normally used only by casual hobbyists or temporary setups. .....(Detailed description of hand laid track for serious layouts).. Another option is so-called flex track, which is compatible with snap track. "

I always thought it was misnamed, as it slides (not snaps) together on its rail connectors.  Atlas's Super-Flex track and Snap-Switches (turnouts) are sold on the same pages with Snap-Track. 

Easements....

If all your couplers are truck mounted, and the bodies are spaced enough not to touch each other, then I agree, easements are good for cosmetics purposes only. 

Body mounted couplers are a different story.  Especially close coupled (short shanked) body mounted couplers.

The overhang of the car 'on the curve' may de-rail the car 'on the straight' to the outside.

You may counter "then just get bigger curves".  Armstrong's quote above addresses that.

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik 

edit: spelling      

Dear Bob,

Thanks for the kind words.  Glad someone reads my posts.  (Some get long winded.)

SWMBO has not yet given me a bottle of Selsun Blue, guess I'll have to think harder.

The info should also be in the FAQ section, or put in the product description.   

A template sounds like a good idea, though to me, the dimensions are more important.  (Dimensions printed on the template?)

As far as getting the critical dimensions of EZ-Track pieces:

1. Find a LHS with a good assortment of EZ-Track, and an owner kind enough to let you measure them without buying.

2. Purchase them and measure them.

3. Purchase CAD software, such as RR-Track.com, which has the Bachmann HO EZ-Track library.  I'd guess that they also purchase and measure the new pieces as they become available.  There is some delay for library updates.

I'm not sure why Bachmann keeps those critical dimensions close to their chest.  Drawings had to be made for the molds, so they surely are known....

A turntable sounds nice, though in these days of "gotta have a Big Boy" I'd guess they'd build a bigger one than 90'.  Having highly reliable indexing would be the most important to me.

And, yes, FT2"S !!

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik   

Dear Roger,

In his book "Track Planning for Realistic Operation (3rd Ed.)" pp. 74-75, John Armstrong makes a good case for easements, which help especially in the case of long passenger cars with diaphrams.

"The improvement is so great that operation is better with the sharp but eased curve than with a more gentle curve which springs directly from the straight track."

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

 

Dear All,

I approached through google, then copied and pasted the address line using a Vista machine.  I remember the pictures took a few seconds to load, otherwise no problem.

Apologies if it causes/caused trouble.... not sure why.  I'll edit the address out of my earlier post.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik   

Dear jsmvmd,

The easiest psuedo-easements using EZ-Track would be:

a 33-1/4"R 18 degree section leading into a 26"R curve, and

a 35-1/2"R 18 degree section leading into a 28"R curve.

I would have to create some dandruff to figure out other radii and combos, which wouldn't be nearly as perfect as the combos above. 

Otherwise, flex-track and cork for spiral or bent stick easements.

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Dear sverigesson,

#6 crossover gap: 2-3/8"

Closest curve pair: 33-1/4"R and 35-1/2"R (= 2-1/4" difference)

#5 turnout pair gap: guess 4" (measuring products section picture)

closest curve pair: 22"R and 26"R

#6 turnout pair:  guess 4" (measuring products section picture)

again, 22"R and 26"R

The latest EZ-Track book (see home page) may have some dimensions.  Terry T. would know more.

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik