Swapping in Slide Switches for Turnout Control

[@gtown150]

Excellent tutorial and wonderful experience for you and your daughter enjoying this great hobby.

[@cpflogsubdivision450]

Great tutorial video. I am using side switches on my basement layout and they work great. I have 30 installed already and some 40 more to go.

[@PeterCPRail8748]

Great tutorial, for simple power routing. Also like how the slide switches can be made to look like more modern automatic switches.

[@the-trojan]

excellent video! I've been experimenting with over center (center over?)solutions to loose points on atlas turnouts with limited success. I think the slide sw set up will allow remote throws, tight rail positioning, as well as frog polarity as demonstrated by your video. As regards keep alive solution....doesn't address keeping turnout tight in either selected position and is cost prohibitive to those of us on a budget. good point about "break before make".

[@beyondDCC]

You missed a very important point. Many low cost versions of slide switches are "Make before Break" .That means they briefly short the stock rails together, in the middle of their throw. If you are using DC, you may not see a hiccup, but with DCC, you will short the booster and shut your whole layout down for while. Make sure you buy "Break before Make" types.

[@thinkstorm]

wondeful how-to! Definitely add this to my 'favorites' list...

[@Class1aNScaleModelRailroading]

Awesome! definitely going to use this method on my layout!

[@thinkstorm]

btw: thanks for inspiring me two years ago when we met at 'Just Trains' and I was just starting out...

[@mcfujiwara925]

+Thorsten Claus Thanks for the kind words, & glad to see you're still model railroading! Would love to see photos of your layout. Feel free to email me: [e-mail] Perhaps we'll see each other again at Just Trains!

[@davidcurtis5398]

Only question is about the wire. Why didn't you use 2 or 3 colors of wire to keep things simple???

[@valerievalleyrr]

Good idea and nice tutorial. Thanks for sharing

[@user-nx8tk1pp5o]

Do know if anyone has done this modification to a PECO switch?

[@uptownphotography]

Do you have a recommendation for HO scale what switches to use to throw the points? Thanks and well done. Phil

[@mcfujiwara925]

Hi Phil, & thanks! It's been a minute since I've done some model railroading, so I'm not sure which kind of slide switches would work for HO nowadays. Also, each HO turnout has a slightly different travel distance. The Railwire forum or the Model Railroad Hobbiest magazine forum both would be a good place to put that question out there. Caboose Industries does have HO & N scale ground throws with slide switches built in: www.cabooseind.com/product-info I recommend the N scale ones for HO if they'll travel far enough (looks better). The few HO layouts I've done I used PECO turnouts with Electrofrogs--you can throw the points with your finger, a spring keeps the points flush, & the frogs are wired to route power with the points. A little pricey, but "bulletproof" construction & no slide switch necessary. If you do go with slide switches, make sure to get the ones that "snap" at the end of the travel (they have a little notch in bar to "hold" on each side). Otherwise the "normal" slide switches (like the old Radio Shack ones) will lose hold after awhile & the points will just sag in the middle. Hope this helps :)

[@uptownphotography]

@@mcfujiwara925 Thanks for the info. I am using Micro Engineering Code 83 turnouts and they can have the points thrown by your fingers too as like the Peco turnouts, the points will snap into place and stay there. I thought I'd try the small switches, (seems like a cool idea) but maybe for simplicity I could just use my fingers. I will check the forum however that you mentioned and see what info I can uncover. Thanks for the very detailed reply. Appreciated. Phil

[@mcfujiwara925]

@@uptownphotography The other option I've used are the Hex Frog Juicers by Tam Valley Depot: www.tamvalleydepot.com/products/dccfrogjuicers.html What's great about them is you wire them up & then forget about them--they reverse polarity based on a train's passing over the frog so you don't have to worry about a slide switch or point blades making contact to power the frog. These are really great for harder-to-reach / mainline turnouts--you can always have the slide switches on near / less-used switching turnouts.

[@uptownphotography]

@@mcfujiwara925 I appreciate the link and info and I will check your link. I am basically old school using regular DC, but looking currently to buy a DCC system and materials to wire the command bus, etc. My problem is I have many brass engines my dad sent me over the years (he used to buy and trade at train shows over the years in CA. I am in NJ). I probably will not convert all the steam engines I own to DCC as it will be both expensive and time consuming should I do all the conversions myself. I probably will only convert about 5 of my favorites. It is a big challenge on a large home mountain layout (about 400 feet of mainline) to start this process, but I love the flexibility of DCC and the sound systems really adds a lot of interest. Thanks again.... Phil

[@tanzj]

Do you have to use slide switches that can handle the amps put out by a DCC system?

[@cardboardboxification]

Only the amps of the locomotive will go through the frog switch driving on top, not the amp the power supply can supply

[@tanzj]

+hill billy Thanks for the info.

[@johnchase7667]

What brand of code 55 do you prefer, I was going to use atlas but I'm seeing negative comments about it so now I am thinking ME?

[@atsf81rj]

MC I went to radio shack and bought about 12 slide switches like the ones in your photo. I have atlas code 55 turnouts and flex track, when I wire the turnouts there is an eye that is one one side of the frog. Is it ok to use that eye to solder the frog middle wire? My next ? is I have been wiring my track with a bus wire one rail has power. The other is a ground bus wire on the other rail. I wanted to be sure it will be ok when I wire the outside terminals on the switch to each rail? Thanks Russell

[@mcfujiwara925]

+atsf81rj The ring on the outside of Atlas C55 turnouts is there for you to attach a wire to power the frog. Use it! As for bus wires: one is positive, one is negative (for either DC or DCC). As long as the outside terminal connect to the closest rail, you're good! NOTE: As I've said many times in my forum posts, I do NOT recommend Radio Shack slide switches. They are open on the sides & allows all sorts of crap inside (especially when scenicking after). Also they lose their tension very quickly, and so can't hold the turnout points over time. I very much recommend the AdaFruit 805: www.adafruit.com/products/805 Has a "click" to hold points. Or the SparkFun 9609: www.sparkfun.com/products/9609 Smaller, & all-metal housing easier to install. Hope this helps.

[@MarkInLA]

That hole is exactly FOR the wire. It's part of the frog molding. They make it big enough to put a screw in instead of soldering. I did a few sliders myself on Atlas HO. Funny, the HO frogs come with a layer of black paint on them. I think most people don't realise they ARE metal (not plastic). My theory is the frog is cheap puter and perhaps would corrode right on the sales rack; the paint prevents that..But why they make no mention of it on the package is odd..Anyway it comes right off with an eraser. Finally ( Made this up years ago. Now several people doing it) ; painting the 4 insulators around the frog with silver/chrome enamel paint. It really adds realism to the area and doesn't come off using a bright boy lightly, there. I know there's a trend toward Peco track. But I think the British look is not American-proto-looking as is Atlas. Atlas are fine if installed correctly and frog is juiced up. MH

[@johnbroughman6204]

Thank You for the tutorial........2 thumbs up !!

[@cavemanchuck8818]

Is there a reason you used tape to insulate the center wire at the switch rather than using heat shrink tubing?

[@mcfujiwara925]

Had the tape on hand. And, as I get older, experience enough tube shrinkage as is :)

[@cavemanchuck8818]

Thanks.

[@waltworld]

Very helpful. Thanks

[@johncoles683]

EXCELLENT AAA+++

[@davidcurtis5398]

Your dead frog issue can be eliminated with a device called a "keep alive" unit. It goes in the engine with the receiver and will allow the engine to be powered for about 6 seconds without any track power pick up. This is enough time to get over dead frogs or small sections of dirty track and is so much easier than all of the work you will do changing out the Caboose industries throws and will look a lot better...Slide switches are "better looking" than the ones you had??? I really don't think so unless you can hide them because they are not prototypical at all...

[@baronjutter]

I want neo-lube so bad :(