More Block Wiring & Bullet Proofing PECO Turnouts...

So yesterday was a full day on the layout, and the progression of the detection wiring needed to be progressed yet again.  Its amazing how much is involved once you actually get going and start doing instead of planning...

One of the future proofing items that needed addressing was the powering of all of the mainline & detected track turnouts.  Not really a big tack in respect to the wiring of them, but a big task in pulling them out of the already installed track work.

Seeing that 95% of all of track & turnouts are PECO Code83 its actually quite easy.  There are two reasons for actually doing this, the first is I have decided that each turnout will be its own detected block.  This way when a caboose or locomotive is blocking either the straight through or diverging route it will show on the panel.  This saves an entire section of a block from being show as occupied when it may only be the turnout itself.

The other flip side is it makes the PECO turnouts virtually bullet proof.  The "Insufrog" range I use feeds power to the turnout via the point end on the point rails, if they become dirty or don't quite make contact with the stock rail it will give a poor power supply.

To overcome this I have wired power to corresponding stock rail and point rail, this ensures that the turnout always power, and if isolated for detection purposes for signaling it can be powered through a Digitrax BDL 168 as a separate block.

Its pretty simple and quick to wire them up...

The gaps are already there from the PECO factory, you just have to be careful with the heat time not melting the plastic, I use a pencil soldering iron.

Jas...