I inherited a couple of N-Trak modules and found this amongst the stuff. Not sure what it does, or what it’s for. The wires on the side are to/from the Yellow line, the 2 at the top are to/from the branch line(blue) and mountain line(green). The module is older, early/mid 2000’s timeframe when they still considered the Cinch Jones connectors as standard.
I dunno. The module it goes to is in bad shape electrically and physically so I’m not even sure it will perform its intended function if I plug it back in. I personally do not recognize it, but it does have a Circuitron look to it. Circuitron labels their products on any of them I have purchased, but my first purchase of one of their products was 2004.
I used an old lighting trick to see the numbers on the ic on the board, and it reveals itself to be a 555 chip. So I’m leaning towards it being a flasher. I will try to test my theory here in a few.
Is the large boxy component a relay? A friend's layout has similar boards that use a 555 timer, relay, and a photoreceptor between the rails to detect when a train passes and cut power to the track for a set time. He uses his to make trains stop at a station platform, then take off again. The potentiometer on the bottom right might adjust how long the power is cut off for.
The large boxy thing is indeed a relay. A DPDT by the pins. As for that type of function it could be, but there are no sensor inputs, just the 3 wires color coded to the same colors as the module standard… and with Cinch Jones plugs just like the modules would have used back in the day.
Maybe include a photo of the tracks on the module (unless they are just R,Y,B,G going straight thru) and a photo of the bottom of the PCB. I would think that it is something dealing with power routing for a crossover between the green and blue tracks...? Guessing just by looking is that the Yellow is the input and the blue and green are the switched outputs...but a 555 chip is a timer so that is strange. DB101 IC is a bridge rectifier providing the DC to the 555 chip and the relay. Pins 1 and 8 on the 555 IC are DC power (pin 8 DC+). Pin 2 is the trigger going to a cap storing power to trigger the relay. I'm guessing that the rheostat is connected to pin 4 which is the reset signal. If it went to pin 3 it would be to the output but it doesn't seem to go anywhere after that so it doesn't make sense to go to pin 3. I looks like the diode nearest to the chip connects to pin 5 which is the control. Pin 7 is reset to disengage the relay. So it looks like it switches power between the green and blue tracks so that only one set of tracks are powered. The rheostat controls how long the delay is before the power is turned off of one track and turned on to the other. No idea as to why someone would need that though...
That was my guess too, figuring that the circuit directed power to select tracks, with the track power input at the lower left and connections to the two tracks at the top. But I can't figure out its purpose.
