I was a bit surprised and disappointed to find out that Marklin Manual turnouts (my first pair) are not electrically isolating? As a simple DC soul this is not very convenient for putting trains in a siding. I looked again on line in the documentation and I do not see this mentioned anywhere, perhaps I missed it. To me this is a pretty important fact. Any one agree?
Graham, Since Marklin invented Z, they get to set the rules. Their design is that you use the isolating rail joiners at the turnout and route power through their relays. This is well documented in their literature, The same is true for the powered units as well as the MTL turnouts. We didn't have power routing in Z until Rokuhan released their units. After they released them, they took a lot of grief for making them that way, to the point that they were redesigned with an non-isolating option. Mark
Thanks as always for your insight MarkM. I found recently that Bachmann redesigned their N scale turnouts to be non isolating from the design that I have primarily on my N scale layout which ARE isolating. If you have DCC this become a mute point I suppose.
Looks like I will need a couple of these to isolate a locomotive in the two sidings: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marklin-Min...080030?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item1e9756ff9e
I would insulate rail joiners by using plastic ones so your siding would be "dead" Then I would have a feeder track to the siding that is controlled by a switch so when you want the power on you can make it live.
Graham, I started out in S scale where the isolation is switch selected on top of the turnout. So the Z paradigm was disappointing to me as well. After you work with it a bit, you get used to it. Yes, you can use the 8588 at each end of the siding, but they can get a bit pricey if you want to do many sidings. Another method would be to use the isolating rail joiners from the Marklin 8954 and use a feed track (like Marklin 8590) in the siding. If you're handy, you can make your own isolating track by cutting a rail in the middle of a straight track and solder feed wires to the track or metal rail joiners. Hope this helps, Mark
As Mark mentioned, it can get pricey. His suggestions for the märklin 8954 insulated joiners are designed for their track and are asymmetrical. You can however use either the Atlas ATL-2091 code 55 insulated joiners (by cutting end in half as they are long or, use Micro Engineering 26-056 code 55 insulated joiners. The Atlas are near clear but milky white where the Micro Engineering ones are brown and can be used with no issues. If you have a typical razor saw (Excel, X-acto, etc.), just cut one or both rails (it is usually preferred to cut both as it can later be used for trouble shooting or other sidings, reversing loops, etc.). If you have very solid rails, you can remove the märklin joiner and put a piece of styrene between the ends of the rails.
Graham, I used the (unsightly) 8588 a few times and found them to be strangely unreliable. Using the 8954 plastic joiners was ultimately both better and cheaper and worked fine, although it required a power feed (not too difficult, besides you can even get code 55 joiners with a feed already soldered on). Note that I use past tense here - I stopped using Märklin's (1972 design) trackwork a few years back. With only two manual turnouts under your belt, my advice would be to switch to Rokuhan if you want easy and straightforward power routing. cheerZ, Adrian
Thanks for suggestion..Rokuhan track has the plastic rail bed though..would not look very good with Marklin track I fear...
Yes, you have a point there (no pun intended) - especially as ballasting Märklin turnouts is a risky procedure (at least with me it was). In that case I'd definitely go for the plastic joiner solution, as I said, that always worked for me as long as I was using Märklin track.
