grande man
Bonafied Grande Nut
We've been waiting on this day to come for a while. Today orders were placed for track, turnouts, roadbed, stationary decoders, and magnetic reed switches.
What we're planning is for three small yards, each with four tracks. Obviously, that's a total of 12 staged trains per operating session. The yards will represent points North, South and West of Sedalia, Colo. Turnout control/routing will be via Lenz 150 six channel stationary decoders. Track/turnouts will be Atlas code 83.
Train detection was the hard part of the decision making process. There are several choices commercially available. All have benefits and drawbacks. I decided on the Miniatronics magnetic reed switches for two reasons, they're reasonably priced and with a switch at each end of a staging track and two LED colors, we'll be able to tell if the track is occupied and which direction the train is headed if it is occupied. As a train enters an empty track, the first LED (green) should flash as each loco passes by. Then, when the second (red) LED lights, the train is stopped by the operator. If a green LED is lit, the track is occupied by a departing train. If the red LED is lit, the track is occupied by an arriving train.
Is there anything being overlooked? I'm a little uneasy about the reed switches. Has anyone got any experience with them?
What we're planning is for three small yards, each with four tracks. Obviously, that's a total of 12 staged trains per operating session. The yards will represent points North, South and West of Sedalia, Colo. Turnout control/routing will be via Lenz 150 six channel stationary decoders. Track/turnouts will be Atlas code 83.
Train detection was the hard part of the decision making process. There are several choices commercially available. All have benefits and drawbacks. I decided on the Miniatronics magnetic reed switches for two reasons, they're reasonably priced and with a switch at each end of a staging track and two LED colors, we'll be able to tell if the track is occupied and which direction the train is headed if it is occupied. As a train enters an empty track, the first LED (green) should flash as each loco passes by. Then, when the second (red) LED lights, the train is stopped by the operator. If a green LED is lit, the track is occupied by a departing train. If the red LED is lit, the track is occupied by an arriving train.
Is there anything being overlooked? I'm a little uneasy about the reed switches. Has anyone got any experience with them?