Monday, December 2, 2019

Here a wire, there a wire, everywhere a wire ...

I have been studying the Dreamer project layout with an eye to powering it.
The result is shown here:





I assigned letters to the outer loop track connections, and numerals to the inner loop places.  Oh, #4 and #7 were not on the previous drawing.  The trams are the trivial part, and designated T1 and T2.

What looks like, and is for all practical purposes, a long passing siding to the left is built as a 'normal' TTrak inner track. This fits the original purpose, to be a TTrak layout.  So, the track polarity, with similar connections, is opposite the outer.  This would be a big problem at the double crossover, as well as at the points on the 'C' module.  The siding is a problem. Solvable, but still a problem.

The solution is to reverse the polarity on these modules, so the inner and outer lines match.  But, that would mean they would be incompatible with use in conventional TTrak setups. 

The power is brought together through Kato 3-way extension cords.  As I looked at the drawing, I began to realize the whole of the inner siding could have its' polarity flipped by combining all these feeds to a single point, and inverting it there.  Looking at the diagram, that is done at the "Red" 3-way extension. 

I took a 3-way cord, cut the wires, and then spliced them back together reversed.  Problem solved.  I have wrapped it with red tape, to identify it for future reference.


Now, I think I'm ready for hookup and connecting the modules for a 'final' time.  That's with the 'Red' and 11 stock 3-way's, plus a home-brew one for the tram loop, since that is all Tomix connectons.

I am so ready to start running trains, and concentrating on structures.  Finally,  I think. Fingers crossed.