Tortoise


NC&StL

NC&StL

Member
So I decided to bite the bullet and use Tortoise machines on my turnouts (which I will probably always call switches). Anyone have anything they need to tell me about wiring? Do I use momentary or locking switches? Can I light a small track indicator and an led on my control panel, etc? I plan to use a green for straight and a red for curved position, is that normal?
Thanks
Bob :confused:
 
Bob, the wiring is pretty straightforward, just like the diagram that comes with the Tortoise. I use momentary for switches with self-locking points, like Peco's, and locking for Atlas switches. There are two additional terminals on the Tortoise plus a common. You can use one to light a switch indicator at the switch location and the other for a light on a control panel. Green for the through route and red for diverging route is the normal postion for mainline switches but yard switches, especially corssovers, may be reversed. I'd warn you that those lights only show that the the Tortoise was activated, not that the points actually moved or are aligned correctly. Tortoise controllers are better than most at not giving false indications but it still happens, so I visually confirm the direction of the points as long as the switch is visible.
 
Tortoise internal switches

This is on my unfinished upper deck with a Tortoise turned on its side. I used one of the Tortoise’s internal switches for the switch indicators lights, Green for straight Yellow for diverging and the other to send power to the frog so the points do not have to bare the full track power when using the non DCC type Walther’s switches.

NYC_George
 
Momentary switches won't work well on a Tortoise without an additional controller such as the NCE Swith-It. Without that, you should use toggle switches. The Tortoise is a stall switch versus the Alas snap switch. The toggle will allow the constant voltage that the Tortoise requires to hold the points.
 
NC&StL said:
So I decided to bite the bullet and use Tortoise machines on my turnouts (which I will probably always call switches). Anyone have anything they need to tell me about wiring? Do I use momentary or locking switches? Can I light a small track indicator and an led on my control panel, etc? I plan to use a green for straight and a red for curved position, is that normal?
Thanks
Bob :confused:
Click to expand...

Hey, the real railways call them switches but the real manufactureres sometimes call them turnouts.
Yup there are contacts for lights on the totoise and I plan to use them on an overhead panel.
As for green or red... green is for the normal direction of travel and red is for diverging route so either can be straight or curved depending on the track layout. IE: if the main takes the curved lag then that would be green.
 
Hi Bob.
I like to solder a wire to each contact of the Tortoise and bring them out to a terminal switch (about 12-18 inches length). This makes present or future wiring much easier. 4 pair telephone wire is ideal and Radio Shack has the terminal strips. Using telephone wire or a cat 3 or cat 5, use a color code of blue/w, orange/w, green/w, brown/w in the order of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. That is a standard color code in wiring and makes it easy for you to keep track of.

I agree that an on/off toggle (DPDT, Double pole/Double throw) is better than a momentary for Tortoise, but you can use them. You just have to make sure that you hold the momentary long enough to make the throw. If you still go with momentary, use the up closed/center off/down closed, then it can be wired bi-directional.
Roll Tide! :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It seems that everyone uses Green for straight and Red for devering for their switch indicators lights. The reason I choose yellow is because it usually indicates a 30 mph speed limit which was the max speed for turnouts on the Penn Central Harlem Davison when I worked there in the early 70’s. This lets everyone know to get down to 30 mph when you see the yellow.

George
 
George, I also use yellow when the diverging route is set. I use a single three lead LED for all my T.O. indicators, red/green for direction against the turnout, and the same type LED for green/yellow when the traffic is with the T.O. For the later, I wire it so green is always on, but when the diverging route is selected, red is also turned on with the result being a yellow ;). If necessary, the yellow color can be adjusted to more yellow than orange by increasing the resistor size in the red wiring.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank to everyone for all this great input. I should be able to stroll thru this now. I did 30+ years as a broadcast engineer, and wired everything from microphones to transmitters, so the wiring part (at least) should go smooth. I have some multi conductor cable I will use on each Tortise, and try to make it a neat installation. I will post some photos (if it looks okay).
Bob
 
NYC_George said:
It seems that everyone uses Green for straight and Red for devering for their switch indicators lights. The reason I choose yellow is because it usually indicates a 30 mph speed limit which was the max speed for turnouts on the Penn Central Harlem Davison when I worked there in the early 70’s. This lets everyone know to get down to 30 mph when you see the yellow.

George
Click to expand...

Good one George!
Might just change me thinking on this...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top