I started hooking up the controls for the switches on the layouts and ran into a problem. My switches were all made before 1942, and are old. Some of the diecast bases are broken or warped. I went through a bunch of switches and made up the best of them for the layout, but they still aren't great.
I just cannot get the switches to throw well at lower voltages. On the south side of the layout I have passing sidings that I want to have trains alternate though with relays. I have to have 100% reliability to run two trains in opposite directions on the same track. (If you've seen the layout I built for Thom B., you know what can be done with relays. I'll write about this in a future article. )
I checked a bunch of different Z transformers and found one that puts out 26 volts. I serviced it for the layout. I wired the station sidings and the switches. Then I rewired a bunch of 022C controllers and hooked up the switches.
With the Z transformer set at 16-20 volts the switches do not always throw. They don't SNAP and lock. At 26 volts the switches throw quite well.
EVERYTIME.
The problem is the indicator bulbs on the 022C controllers smoke. They smoke a lot and burn fingers when touched.
In the pictures the controller that is perpendicular to the group is the one I'm testing.
I have 24V bulbs in the switch machines. They don't seem to be a problem. At least not yet.
I have a box of resistors, so I decided to see if I could cut the current to the indicator bulbs, but not the switch machine.
It was actually quite easier than I made it.
The first thing I tried was to cut the metal on the bottom. This metal bar is connected to the centers of the two bulbs. Then I put a resistor in the gap I made.
Being more interested in being done than using all my tools, I first tried cutting the base with some Kadee track pliers. These things will cut almost anything, but they don't cut switch controller bases.
So I used a reinforced cutting wheel on a Dremel Moto-Tool.
While this was easy to do, it didn't work. The bulbs were dimmer, but the switch machines didn't get enough current.
I cut apart another 022C on the inside and ran resistors to each bulb. The resistors were different sized so I could decide which size to use if it worked.
It worked, but meant I had to take up the controllers I'd already installed on the layout. While I left some play in the wires, there just isn't enough play to cut around the bulbs with the Dremel. To put a controller on the layout, I have to lay on my side and stick my arm under the layout from the side up to my shoulder and then pull the one wire I want without pulling any other ones.
The first method was much easier, and can be done without taking the controllers off the layout. There had to be something wrong. Probably something simple that I was overlooking.
So I spent some time looking at the 022c with the resistor on the bottom.
At this point I knew the dark brown resistors I had would work. After looking at the first controller I modified, I noticed the wire connection was on the wrong side of the resistor. I can change that with a short shunt and some shrink tube. The shunt is the red wire in the photo below.
Here's the test controller sitting above the normal ones at 26 Volts :
Fantastic. I can cut the air gap in the bottom and shunt that wire on the layout.
