Question Conditionally powering a siding (Rokuhan)

v_z_gK_Z_289333312 Jun 13, 2016

  1. v_z_gK_Z_289333312

    v_z_gK_Z_289333312 TrainBoard Member

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    Using DC, is there a way to conditionally power a siding without merely isolating the siding section with insulated joiners and running the siding off an independent controller? Dedicating a single controller to such a small section of track seems like overkill. But I want to be able to park a locomotive on a siding and run another locomotive on the main line without affecting the parked loco. I could imagine some kind of small piece of track hooked up to a C002 Rokuhan switch which conditionally insulates the track.

    I'm using Rokuhan track for my layout. Thanks in advance for any tips.
     
  2. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Sure! Insulate the rail and run an independent power lead to it--but don't wire that to a different controller, run it off the same controller through a switch.

    Insulating one rail and using a simple on/off toggle or pushbutton switch is all you need. If you don't have an electronic hobbyist supply house in town, get it on line or from an automotive parts house. SPST (single pole single throw) will do. You'll be out, what, six bucks or less, unless things have gone way up since Radio Shack closed their stores.

    You have remotely controlled turnouts and a control panel, right?
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2016
  3. v_z_gK_Z_289333312

    v_z_gK_Z_289333312 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the reply. That makes sense. I was hoping Rokuhan would have some kind of official switch for this or something but it looks like they do not browsing their product pages. So as I understand it, to do this with a single controller, I'll have to cut and splice into the Rokuhan power cords (they have their own power interfaces on both ends). Rokuhan makes Y splitters for their power cords, so I could see altering a single official track power feed to take a switch and then hooking that up to a Y splitter on the power main feed. I feel wary to daisy-chain the Y splitters, but maybe that's unavoidable.

    I'll be using the C002 to control turnouts and decoupling.
     
  4. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    I'm not that familiar with the brand and the equipment. I'm just an old-school HO guy who hand-wires non-DCC, all-block-system layouts. But, yes, a splitter will give you access to some track power, which you can then do with as you will. If you have more than one siding you want to be able to park locomotives on, you can run power to all those toggle switches from a single splitter, then run the power from each toggle to each siding with separate wires.

    I looked on their website, but didn't find pics of their track electrical connector or what the plug connections for the wiring actually look like. But, yes, you'll have to cut a connector or two off and strip the wire for attachment to the toggle switch blade terminals on the back.

    Install one splitter, wire that to all toggle switches, run wires from each of those toggle switches to the insulated rail of the siding you want it to control. Tape the other wire from the splitter off. Make sure you always insulate the same rail--don't wire the same feed to the left rail half the time and the right rail half the time. The connectors that clip to the rails will have two leads, but on the sidings you don't have to run wires to both of them. The rail which is not insulated will work just fine from the main connector.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2016
  5. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

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    I'm not familiar with Rokuhan track or controllers, or whata Coo2 switch is... But I am using DC. Mostly a two-throttle block control system with DPDT switches to select one of the two throttles for each block, except for dead-end spurs. A dead-end spur connects to the rest of the layout at only one place, a loco or train on that spur can't go anywhere except through that one connection. I power those with what I call SATELLITE BLOCKS.
    panl1.jpg
    Here is the panel for the portion which runs around back of my layout, mostly for staging, both hidden and open. Mosquito Junction is where the visible mainline goes into staging. Has a DPDT switch so that piece of track can be controlled either by throttle A or throttle B. From Mosquito Jct going left/west, we split off into three tracks (identified 1,2,3 on the panel) for hidden through staging. I use this to hide passenger trains that have supposedly gone off to some distant city, or that are ready to come onto my visible scene via Mosquito. Each of these tracks has a DPDT switch for control from either of 2 throttles. Theoretically, I could have a train from one track running east from Mallory with one controller, and a train from a different track running west toward Demara Junction from the other controller. This is same way one would set up a visible passing siding for making a meet with DC block control. However there is a fourth track at Mallory which is a hidden dead-end spur. It connects ONLY through Demara Junction and it has a small SPST (on-off) switch so a train can be stopped and held there. Since that train can run ONLY through Demara Jct., it is fed by whatever throttle is selected by the Demara DPDT selector. I use this hidden spur to simulate a run from the wharves railroad to an isolated part of the port- for industries I just don't have room to model but I want to run the traffic. Since I can't see it to do much "hands-on" switching, I set up a transfer train before an operating session which can run FROM Northside to the Wharves RR yard, and then the transfer can run back to Northside and simply stop on that hidden track to represent delivering the cars.
    Demara Jct. connects to the east with the Mallory hidden staging, to the west to a connection with Wharves RR (which will be on another control panel), and also west to,Demara Yard. Demara Yard is an OPEN/ visible staging yard where five freight trains of various lengths can be staged. They all come off the Demara Jct block, only one at a time can run anywhere and only can run through Demara. So all five five at SATELLITE blocks with on-off only switches, using power from the Demara DPDT selector. However each track has an additional satellite block so the end of each track can be shut off, so a road engine can be held whle the rest of the track is powered to let a switcher pull the cars from behind the road engine.

    Now something just for fun that has nothing to do with how it's wired or switched. Demara Yard is visible staging but it will be behind two other yards, the Wharves RR and the main yard of the trunkline Santa Fe. Though visible, it will be disguised in plain sight, an impostor seeming just more tracks in a sea of tracks. Thus it is named for Ferdinand Waldo Demara, the "Great Impostor" dramatized in the 1960 movie of the same name.
    DemTailHi.jpg

    And "Mosquito Junction"? My prototype city Galveston has an area of the port used for shrimpboats, belittled by the ocean-going ships as a "mosquito fleet." The track into hidden staging runs right past that scene, hence the name Mosquito Junction.
    ShrMock314.jpg
     
  6. ViperBugloss

    ViperBugloss TrainBoard Member

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    As supplied Rokuhan turnouts are power routing, so parking the loco in the siding and switching back to the main line will isolate the siding. To make a turnout non power routing, for example when using DCC, it is necessary to insert two small screws into the indicated holes.

    Rob Pearce (aka ViperBugloss)
     
    acptulsa likes this.
  7. pmx

    pmx TrainBoard Member

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    I believe the Rokuhan turnouts are power routing by default, which means they only provide power to the track direction they are switched to. So you wouldn't have to do anything more than install it straight from packaging into your layout. To make the Rokuhan turnouts non-power routing, power every where, you must install the small screws in the underside that are included in the packaging. So if you installed the screws you can simple remove them from the desired turnout(s) to return to a power routing configuration.

    So no extra insulators or wiring needed. :cool:
     
  8. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Oh, well, nothing to it. Just make sure the turnouts aren't turned toward the siding unless you want the locomotive to run.

    Can't ask for a simpler solution than that!
     
  9. v_z_gK_Z_289333312

    v_z_gK_Z_289333312 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, everyone! Pretty simple with Rokuhan, glad to hear it! It would be nice to park Z Scale locos and not have to fiddle with getting them on/off the tracks manually.
     
  10. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    But remember--you must make your electrical connection(s) to the track on the main line, or your siding will be powered and the main line will not.
     

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