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Help with basic wiring please

Hi

Just acquired a baseboard in two halves, with hornby rail layout. Unfortunately it has been in store for at least ten years and wiring for over ten electric point systems has become detached in places. The bank of switches are however in place.

Two queries please:

1 The bank of black coloured switches (for points) do not appear to have a feed wire. I have not removed them from the surface. Does the feed plug into the hole at one end of this bank of switches (there is a steel peg at the other end, presumably to add further switches, all of which have a single and common feed) ??

I do understand that there will be a return wire from each point motor back to one terminal on the AC outlet of a controller and that the other feed wire will connect to the bank of switches, with two wires continuing to the point motor outlets.

2 Fitted to the edge of the baseboards is a black box about one inch and a half by three inches and a half. It is RELCO with a pair of terminals at each end. One end states TO CONTROLLER 16V IN and the other end states TO TRACK OUT. What would this have been used for. It also states on top PAT PENDING, and WATFORD ENGLAND. From the position of two of these RELCO units it seems that they have been used purely to add extra feed and return wires around the track ? Is the use of this unit the same as a tag strip ?

Andy Howes Leicester UK

Reply to
Andrew Howes
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Sounds right.

Go to

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and enter "relco track cleaner" (including the quotes). They are supposed to keep the track clean, but opinions differ as to their efficacy.

Reply to
MartinS

Martin

Thanks for that - I am amazed at how it works. Basically then I just connect from the controller through the RELCO unit to the track and that unit provides the extra power in the event of a blip in the power getting to a loco. ?

I sorted the first query out, trial and error. Amaz>

Reply to
Andrew Howes

I've never used one, but to quote from one Google "hit":

The Relco is wired in parallel to the track power feed. While a loco is running there is current draw. If the loco stalls even for a microsecond, the current drops to zero and the Relco switches on the 20,000 volt HF. This creates an ionized electrical connection across the gap between the rail and the closest metal object (wheel) that will complete the circuit. The loco gets current and continues on its way.

In other words, it generates a high-voltage surge to bridge any non- conductive matter on the track or wheel. You do have to clean accumulated crud off your wheels from time to time.

Power runs from your 16VAC output through the Relco to the track. The DC controller output goes directly to the track, not via the Relco.

Reply to
MartinS

That sounds like Hornby switches & sounds like you have got the wiring right. However, I don't use these myself so don't just take my word for it!! A check with a multimeter works wonders.

Relco make electronic rail cleaners. They superimpose a high frequency AC ripple on the normal 12V DC used for the model railway and this is meant to improve running on dirty track. I had one and it seemed to work, but got rid of it when I converted to DCC. (Completely incompatible).

There are mixed opinions on relcos -

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has an extensive discussion of the pros and cons.

If you are having problems I suggest you make a note of the wiring and then take the relcos out of circuit. Then trace where the power feeds lead to and get the thing going. I'm sure someone somewhere will have the curcuit details if you want to put a relco back in again.

HTH Simon.

Reply to
Simon Harding

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