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Z-Gauge (North American Style) - Page 3

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click on a picture to see it full sized use your browser "BACK" button to return to this page.	This page covers Micro Trains Track and electrical modifications that can be made to various pieces of track to get better performance from it. installing LED track direction indicators on power track from Micro Trains uncovering the electrical parts of the Micro Trains Switch which lie under the switch isolating the curved route of the switch so the power is off in that piece of track when the switch is not set for the curved route the same as above only isolating the straight route instead so the curved route is the main line converting the switch to true power routing, there is only power beyond the switch where the route is selected. modifying a pair of switches for a cross over between two main line loops that are isolated so two trains can be run one on each loop and when the power is correct you can cross over between the two systems without shorting both power packs out and smoking an engine on a straight DC system. See item #1 and place a pair of these one on each main near the cross over to ensure they are both set in the same direction of travel. This is useful on DCC only if you are using two power boosters to power your layout. The Micro Trains Micro Track system is designed to have power all over the track system from a single feed point no matter where the switches are pointing. This mimics the Marklin way of doing things. This feature is useful but there are times when you want to be able to park an engine on a piece of track and not have it run off again when you start to run another engine. I will also show how to isolate the cross over between two main line loops of track so two trains can be run under DC control with two different power packs or to provide isolation if two boosters are being used with DCC control.
#1. Showing the direction of the trains on a piece of track which is independent of a switch click on a picture to see it full sized use your browser "BACK" button to return to this page.	Show train will travel to the left	This the cover of the LED package I used for this project it contains red green and yellow LEDs and dropping resistors	This shows the layout of the components. The LED are situated with the white bar facing to the right in this picture. This is important as the diode is a directional device and if installed in reverse it will show a direction opposite to the train direction on the track.	This picture shows the connection of track power to this piece. Solder wires to the pads and run them down through the roadbed to your power pack. It does not matter which is connected to what connection on you transformer as regardless of the polarity this device shows the correct train direction of travel
	Shows train will travel to the right
#2. This shows the bottom of the switch and how to lift he bottom cover and the layout of the components found under the cover plate. click on a picture to see it full sized use your browser "BACK" button to return to this page.	This shows the bottom of the switch. there are five screws of which only four have to be removed to lift the cover.	This shows the bottom cover ready to be lifted. Note which four screw are removed and note where the screw driver blade is used to lift he cover plate on the left end	This shows the bottom cover removed	This shows the component layout of the bottom of the switch. electrical diagram of switch and power to frog for left and right hand switches
#3. We are showing how to use the internal switch for power to the frog to also control the power to the curved route while leaving the straight through route unmodified for power to complete loop from one feeder.	This series of three view shows where to cut the jumpers to isolate the curved route and where to install the jumper to connected the curved route track beyond the switch frog to the frog for power routing. The brass piece used to connect to the frog is a piece of 5 thousands brass shim stock. You do not want much thicker material as you won't be able to replace the bottom cover if you do. I also kept my solder joint clear of the lug on the frog which holds the screw so as not to interfere with the fit of the cover plate. The diagram shows the electrical diagram of what is happening.
#4. This is similar to #3 but here we are using he curved route as the main and isolating the straight through route.	This view shows where to cut the jumpers to isolate the straight route and where to install the jumper to connected the straight route track beyond the switch frog to the frog for power routing. The brass piece used to connect to the frog is a piece of 5 thousands brass shim stock. You do not want much thicker material as you won't be able to replace the bottom cover if you do. I also kept my solder joint clear of the lug on the frog which holds the screw so as not to interfere with the fit of the cover plate. The diagram shows the electrical diagram of what is happening.
#5. Now we are combining the two procedures in #3 & #4 to produce a full power routing swtich.
#6. modifying the cross over switches so that you do not short one loop with the other	All this mod does is connect the short section of track from the frog to the end of the switch to the wing rail on the opposite switch. This prevents one system shorting the other out when the switches are connected back to back and both must be modified as per this picture. This however does not stop you from shorting the two systems out through the engine on the cross over if you have not ensured the two main lines are power in the correct direction. That is why we recommend the indicators in #1 for use with a cross over. Just may save an engine from going up in smoke.



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