Radio Control For Turnout Drives

Madman

Madman

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I am toying with the idea of mounting switch drives to some of my turnouts. However, I don't want to have a control panel sticking out of the ground and SWMBO says i can't anyway.

So I thought of powering a group of turnouts in my main marshaling yard by radio control. Has anyone done this ?
 
On eBay there are usually multi-relay R/C boards with hand-held button transmitters, I think someone on here used one for this purpose.

I used the same type of board indirectly, to trigger an NCE Mini-panel's inputs and fire DCC point decoders. A guy on MyLargeScale (Cliff I think?) followed up on that concept and produced some really nice panels for his line.
 
If you're using the Crest Revolution, CRE 57074 switch control is supposed to handle up to 5 turnouts. I have no experience of it.
 
Dan, how is the rest of the layout run? Battery? Track power? What system?

I would think you would want to integrate the train control system with the turnout system.

Also, is cost an issue? I'm still thrilled with my pneumatic system, and I use remote DCC accessory decoders to operate them from the same wireless control that runs the locos.

Greg
 
Greg Elmassian said:
Dan, how is the rest of the layout run? Battery? Track power? What system?

I would think you would want to integrate the train control system with the turnout system.

Also, is cost an issue? I'm still thrilled with my pneumatic system, and I use remote DCC accessory decoders to operate them from the same wireless control that runs the locos.

Greg
Click to expand...


My railway is battery powered using G Scale Graphics equipment. About ten years ago I experimented with pneumatic control of my turnouts with mixed success. I have one spot in the railway with a half dozen turnouts in close proximity, but some of them are slightly difficult to reach. So I thought of radio control as I don't want to revisit wiring buried in the ground again. Been there, done that.
 
if you want battery powered turnouts, I'd see if you can get them with a solar panel, but now it gets not pretty in appearance and adds to cost.

What issues did you have with your pneumatic system? Surely not the actuators themselves. I bury the single tube and run the "remote" part from a central location. Tubing is cheap and easy to bury. No electronics or electricals out in the weather makes it dead reliable.

You did not respond to cost, how much per turnout will you spend?

Greg
 
<off topic>
'ping' to this thread, just, Greg.

<on topic>
If they are remote, and awkward to get at.. How are you going to power the remote control and point motors??
You are going to have to wire something, or be forever changing batteries??

Or have I missed something?
 
As I mentioned in my post above, solar (with batteries of course)... some people have run batteries and I think you can buy a remote setup for turnouts that is battery powered (clearly all this is wireless).

Adding the solar keeps you from changing batteries, which would be a complete pain in the butt to be sure.

RCS America sells a controller:
http://www.remotecontrolsystems.com/?products=raillinx-900-rtsc-remote-trackside-switch-control

In my mind, with a fair number of turnouts, pneumatic was much cheaper and more reliable. I use a standard DCC accessory decoder, $47 to run 4 switches. Even with the expensive air solenoids, I still came out ahead and no electronics sitting out in the weather.

Greg
 
PhilP said:
<off topic>
'ping' to this thread, just, Greg.

<on topic>
If they are remote, and awkward to get at.. How are you going to power the remote control and point motors??
You are going to have to wire something, or be forever changing batteries??

Or have I missed something?
Click to expand...

Good point. As mentioned, all of the turnouts are located within and area of about 15' x 5'. I could place the battery in a structure, along with the receivers. Sure, I will have wiring from the structure to each turnout. But that may be acceptable. I say may, because I'm not totally committed to the idea yet.

I thought of running stiff wires from the barrel bolts that I use as throws for the turnouts to the edge of the area in question. This way I could operate the turnouts from the edge of the area in question. But there are issues doing this also.
 
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