wiring diagram for bachmann crossovers.

[trainman1248]

i want to wire my led's wired directly in to the switch so i can tell which way the switch is pointing at any given time. but i need to know which wire goes to which rail so that way i can solder the wire properly without to much hassle.


thank you in advance.

P.s
 a drawing would be helpful.

[Jim Banner]

I assume you are using E-Z Track or similar turnouts with all routes powered.  Because the power to the rails does not change when you throw the switch, there is no way of simply wiring LEDs directly to to the rails and have them indicate which way the switch is thrown.  The usual work around is to wire the coils of an Atlas Snap Relay in parallel with the switch motor's coils and use the electrical contacts of the Snap Relay to work the lights.  If you throw both switches of your crossover at the same time, you can use a single Snap Relay to indicate either cross over or straight through alignment.  Otherwise, the usual rule of one Snap Relay per switch would apply.

If you are using all metal turnouts that change frog polarity when you throw the switch, then you can connect LEDs from the frog to the running rails (the "outside rails" of the turnout.)  If you are running trains with dc, you can use bicolour LEDs so that they will light for both train directions or you can connect regular LEDs and their ballast resistors across the dc outputs of bridge rectifiers and connect the ac inputs of those brdige rectifiers from frog to running rails.

Jim

[trainman1248]

yes i am using ez track turnouts with the metal frog.


what im am think of doing is using 2 leds a red and a green *red = thrown, green = closed* the black wires from my leds is wired to the frog

and then the red wires from either led go to the coresponding red wire on the turnout.

i need to know which red wire goes to which point either closed or thrown i think i have it figured out but i dont want to  solder anything yet until im sure.

thanks for the help.