Catching up with some electrial projects

While finishing the helix, and the Wesso and Gloconda sections I had neglected to finish the controls for the lower or Southern Pacific staging yard.  Now with the ability to run trains around the layout that omission was really noticeable and I am  correcting it.

The yard is similar to the upper or Western Pacific staging yard but with 5 sidings instead of 4.  I am using another Digitrax DS-64 plus this little circuit I built to handle the turnout that makes the reverse loop.

This circuit uses a Set / Reset RS flip flop made from Nand logic gates to control a relay which controls the polarity of the voltage applied to the Tortoise motor.   One pole of the switches on the panel are wired a little differently so that in one direction the all send the thrown polarity and in the other they all send the aligned polarity.


Another electrical project I am working on is a power supply for the LED lighting over the Wesso section and the staging yard.  The laptop power supplies I have been using in other areas won't handle those and I have been using my bench power supply but that is needed on the bench.