1.23.2011

Minitrix Turnouts / Switch / Points

I've long sang the praises of the Kato Unitrack system (and many others who use it also agree as to its huge benefits and advantages) so this post and its topic should take nothing away from that praise.  Essentially, I need some turnouts (points, switches, etc...) for my freight and passenger terminal that required physical capabilities beyond what Kato's #4 turnout (or #6) could provide.

I considered Tomix, as that track system is equally well respected, but as this track is meant for yards, I didn't want to deal with the pre-ballasted track.   I also considered Atlas, as their track system is plentiful, cheap, and ubiquitous here in the States.

However, I already had some of the Minitrix track from a starter set, and had been using two of their switches in my industrial spur.  There is something about their track that is appealing just in the 'feel' of it.  I don't know if its the weight, or the solid feeling you have when you connect their track together, but I felt good about going with Minitrix.  However, I did use plenty of Atlas Flex Track (and for one curved turnout I even used a Tomix switch) so this is not a complete utilization of Minitrix.  Although it is rather unorthodox as most people either aren't aware that you can mix some track, or they expect significant problems with using track from different brands.  Given that Atlas and Minitrix are both the same height, and that they use code 80 rail the same as Kato, Tomix, and Fleischmann, it all seems to work pretty well together (detailed specs for virtually all N scale track is provided here).  Below is a photo of the yard area with the Minitrix turnouts and Atlas flex track being put together....
The other thing I liked about Minitrix was the way they allow you to connect their turnout motors to the turnout so that the turnout motor would sit flush with the tops of the ties (or sleepers).  Not only did I think this would clearly be more aesthetically pleasing than having the motor being exposed, but its also a far simpler solution than more complicated 'under the table' options.  The photo below shows the traditional motor attachment on the left, and the inverted attachment on the right.
The trick with having the turnout motors sit below the surface of the rails is that you simply attach (using some very straight forward metal tabs that insert into slots in the side of the turnout itself) the motor 'upside down'.   You're also going to have to 'reverse' the type of machine you use...i.e. use a 'left motor' for a 'right turnout' if your going to go this route!
As the now inverted switch machine sits slightly below the surface, you'll need to cut an opening for the switch machine to sit in.  For this, you can just trace the outline of your switch machine...in something like a cork under-layment the job is really easy.  If you're track sits on plywood, well, its a bit more trouble!
With the opening complete, you'll need to drill holes for the turnout motor, but really all that's necessary now is to put the turnouut with its motor in place.
 
When complete, the motor sits almost-but not quite- flush to the 'surface'.   Not as elegant as the 'hidden in the ballast' solution of the Kato or Tomix brands, but a decent approach!
As Kato's switches are single coil, I found that my next question was how to configure the switches to be remotely operated.  I'm not quite prepared to convert my switches to DCC control yet....for whatever reason I like the look and feel of a nice 'control panel' with all its toggles, etc....

While I found a really good solution for operating my Kato switches (using a design developed by George Stilwell ("easyBCD" which he shares on the Yahoo! Kato Unitrack group), my searches of the internet found no comparable design for the two-coil design (Okay, that's not precisely true...I did find several, but I understood little or it looked a lot more complicated than I wanted to pursue).  What I did find was actually much easier, and that was the 751d turnout controller designed and created by Ken Stapleton.  At $8.00 apiece (fully assembled) these are actually really well priced (considering the ancient Atlas Slide switch goes for about $4.00 and the Kato 'big blue' switch at around $7.00) and are really a value when you consider the features that Ken put into these machines!   Ken was also very available over email to answer some of my questions about using these controls with Minitrix turnouts (to my knowledge, they hadn't been used with Minitrix motors).
The biggest drawback I've found with these switches is the physical interaction between the motor / solenoid mechanism and the actual switch itself.  Essentially the red 'lever' that throws the points sits in a small gap withing the motor mechanism.  While this is fairly straightforward, its not 100% reliable.  Several times I will throw the switch at the control panel (and hear the appropriate 'snap' sound) only to find that the red level skipped out of the slot in the motor.  Sometimes this has to do with the alignment of the motor on the switch machines, which can be addressed by propping it so that the contact is more certain each time.
Bottom line is that these turnouts are not as reliable as the Kato turnouts.  I'll give Kato a 95% reliability rating, while these Minitrix switches get an 80%.  However, one advantage is the ease of replacing motors with the Minitrix, which is not at all a feasible option at all withe Kato!  In terms of cost....well, it sort of depends on the latest exchange rates!   The polarized frog turnouts I went with (15 degrees) are not cheap...in fact, they are slightly more expensive than a Kato #6 turnout....and that's before you paid another $15 for the motor mechanism ( I have questioned my judgment when the cost started adding up with these!).

So there you go....if you want a turnout alternative that is more expensive and not as reliable as the Kato, and will not be readily available at your local hobby shop (unless you live in Europe I imagine!) you should consider Minitrix as one of you options!

(See? I'm still praising Unitrack...even when I'm not!)

18 comments:

  1. Mounting the turnout motors upside-down is actually one of the causes the turnouts become less reliable. The slot in the turnout motor has less grip on the red lever when mounted in that position. Interestingly enough, they never saw the need to fix it :)

    I don't know anything about Unitrack turnouts, but replacing the Tomix turnout motors is a lot easier that the Minitrix ones if you mount the Minitrix ones upside-down, especially if you nail or screw the track to the baseboard.

    I have a feeling that newer Minitrix turnouts have gotten less reliable. I blame it partially on Minitrix quality control, and partially on Minitrix's inability to update their turnouts for the newer, smaller, more prototypical wheels many trains use. I've had to adjust several of the turnouts in order to get (most) trains to run as they should, but I still have regular derailments on turnouts. Then again, I have about 50 of them strewn about the layout, so there's bound to be a few failures ;)

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  2. Thanks Martijn! Good info! I should have mentioned how much I liked the work you were doing with Minitrix, it was one of my influences!
    http://www.jr-chiisai.net/blog/progress-moritzburg/building-non-japanese-layout-part-i

    Depending on how frustrating the reliability of these switches are, I may try to figure out some modification. Now that you point it out, I think it could be fairly straight forward!

    50? of them! Wow! I can only imagine all the wire that will require (something I didn't think about when I started was the sheer volume of wiring all these switches would take...I only have about 15 and its a lot!).
    Thanks!

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  3. I don't really do anything special with my track laying for it to be an influence really :)

    The main advantage in your case is that the turnouts are used in a yard, which is (from the looks of it) easily accessible. That obviously makes it a lot less of a problem should a turnout refuse to work. In my case, I have many of them that are hidden underneath mountains, or generally just hard to reach. Many of them are also already ballasted, so replacing them is painful. Anyway, I'm frustrated enough by them to have switched (no pun intended :)) to Peco turnouts. They're not inherently more reliable, but they're easier to optimize for reliability.

    I haven't connected all turnouts yet, but yeah, there's plenty wire under the table. The whole thing is digital and uses blocks, which adds quite a few extra meters of wire ;)

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  4. Hello Jerry, thanks for your comment on my blog (trains160). Yes, we have the same set of minitrix. It was my first set of trix and i bought 2 years ago. I already knew your blog by searching in internet and your blog it's great because you always have a lot of information and we always learn from the experience of others. I already joined your blog. See you soon.
    Mário

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  5. Hello Jerry, thanks for your comment on my blog (trains160). Yes, we have the same set of minitrix. It was my first set of trix and i bought 2 years ago. I already knew your blog by searching in internet and your blog it's great because you always have a lot of information and we always learn from the experience of others. I already joined your blog. See you soon.
    Mário

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  6. Hello Jerry,

    very intersting post , i will take much time to read it.i also visit the ken website.

    thanks

    pascal

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  7. Hello,

    How did you make the wirings of the turnout ( green, white yellow)?

    Thanks!

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  8. Hi Anonymous! The wires that Minitrix provides for its turnout motors is white, green and yellow. Apparently, each manufacturer selects its own colors for the wires! Most of us in North America are used to the Atlas wire colors, but I know that Fleischmann, Arnold, etc.. all have difference colored wires as well.

    Here's a shop that offers a lot of different types:
    http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh_list.asp?ca=13&offset=75

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  9. Hello,

    I forgot to mention the turnout that I have is a Minitrix (14955 Right Turnout and 14935 Electric Turnout motor), the sequence of the wires color seem to be diferente. But im trying to figure out which is the "common" wire and the wire for the right and the other for the left!!And what transformer do i have to use?!

    Thanks

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  10. Oh sorry, I didn't understand your question!

    The White is the common. The manual I have for the switch motors seems to indicate that Green is for the diverging route, with Yellow for straight.

    I hope that helps!

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  11. On your manual what are the specification of the transformer use to power up the switch motors?


    Thanks for the help!!

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  12. 14 volts AC, although I am using 12v DC currently with mine.

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  13. Hello, thx for your post. I have minitrix turnouts and I have installed the motors in the upside position as you did and did all the wiring but I am facing a strange problem. When I click the button on the controller I hear the buzz of the turnout motor and it moves but it could not make the turnout frogs move. In other words the motor works and it starts to move the red button at the lower part of the turnout but it could not take it all the way so the frogs change their direction... do you know why is that and how can I solve it?

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  14. Hello, thx for your post. I have minitrix turnouts and I have installed the motors in the upside position as you did and did all the wiring but I am facing a strange problem. When I click the button on the controller I hear the buzz of the turnout motor and it moves but it could not make the turnout frogs move. In other words the motor works and it starts to move the red button at the lower part of the turnout but it could not take it all the way so the frogs change their direction... do you know why is that and how can I solve it?

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  15. Hi Amr!

    Did you see Martjin's comments at the top of all the comments to this article? He brings up a point about this method of using the switch motors (upside down) that I did not know at the time I installed mine. So they are really not totally perfect in this mode.

    In fact, my own experience is similar to Martjin's in that I had problems with the swith motor effectively throwing the 'red lever' all the way over so that the points would move all the way and the polarity was reversed. The only solutions I can think of are:

    1. Ensure that the switch motor is getting enough 'power' to adequately throw the points/red lever.
    2. Make sure the switch motor is pushed in all the way on the turnout itself so that there is little or no gap or play between the motor and the turnout.
    3. Test a different switch and/or motor?

    That's about all I can offer. I agree with Martjin that they are not perfect in this role (one of the reasons I will probably not use them in the future - at least I won't use them 'upside down' anyway) but not all of them were problems and some seemed to work really well (maybe there is inconsistent quality of the switches or wiring issues that created this experience for me, but I don't think so).

    All I can say is good luck and let me know if you can figure out a solution!

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  16. Hello,

    Thx for your reply... In fact, I tried another turnout and it worked... It seems that the problem was with the turnout itself (maybe because I got them 2nd hand)... I moved them to a small side yard where I am using manual control...
    I still did not finish all the wiring yet so I didn't control all of them at the same time yet...

    I have another question... If I want to extend the ballasting to cover the turnout motor to get a more prototypical look... any ideas how can I do that?

    Thx again :-)

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  17. Hi Amr!

    Glad to see that you were able to resolve that question!

    As for what you can do to try and hide or cover the turnout motor (new ones are really shiny metal, so they definetly don't look good!) I did two things which worked pretty well.

    1. Paint the metal a dull brown or other color that matches your earth color near the switch. I did this for the majority of the switches and if you can get a color that is close, it acts as good camouflage!

    2. Cover the area (including the switch motor) with some tape or thin pastic, than ballast over that. I did that with a yard lead and had several motors in a row.

    In both cases I made sure not get ANY ballast and/or glue near the motor or the moving turnout parts!

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  18. Hello,

    Thanks again for your reply. This is really helpful... I am using them as part of my mainline... some of them are within yards and thus will need to be covered by ballast, while others are near fields and I think I will do them in green... I hate the shiny metal color which makes it look as if their are metal in the middle of the ground... I will use your suggested method but how can I ensure that no glue or paint goes in... I am really worried about that and I do not want to re install and motors again... it took really long time... I mean how could I put the plastic and fix it?

    Thanks again...

    Amr

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