Z-STUFF DZ-2500 WIRING FOR NON-DERAILING OPERATION OF ROSS CUSTOM 3-WAY SWITCHES

By Bob Mintz

“TCA Mission: To develop an appreciation of and to preserve an important segment of history—Tinplate Toy Trains—through research, education, community outreach, fellowship, establishment of collecting standards, and to promote the growth and enjoyment of collecting and operating toy, model and scale trains.”

In taking a cue from the above statement revision to include the work “OPERATING”, I have taken on the task of finally actually building a toy train layout, albeit for someone else. Of course a step-by-step commentary on the fruits of my labor will be in a future article.

We all know that a layout is never completed, but for all intense and purposes, there will be some light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully it will not be another train!

My first decision was what type of track to use. Whenever I asked hobbyists their opinion on this, the knee-jerk reaction was to use GarGraves track with Ross Custom Switches. I never quite understood why one would mix and match, and specifically aesthetically, I felt that using Ross track with Ross Custom Switches would be the way that I would go, whether for the paying customer or for myself.

The Ross Custom Switches line has such an assortment of products (45+), that I am actually seriously thinking of selling my Super-O track in order to use this varied system.

The next decision was to go with either Lionel Command Control or MTH DCS. Personally, I have thought from a marketing approach, using the terms Command Control and Conventional Control was, well—way too Confusing! Way too many words starting with the letter “C”.

MTH'S Digital Command System (DCS) was the “C”lear winner because of the L “C” D in the remote with hundreds of submenus; an Internet upgradeable software based system vs. a fixed hardware one; a two-way handshake communication vs. the one way broadcast and the ability for MTH to run both DCS and TMCC operation, while Lionel can only run its' own. This is like comparing an adding machine (not even an electronic calculator) to a BlackBerry.

My client asked for both a freight yard and passenger station. In order to save precious real estate, I felt that using the Ross 3-way switch would create some great parallel straight-aways.

Z-Stuff for Trains makes the DZ-2500 switch machine that “offers slow speed switching from the pushbutton, TMCC CAB-1 remote, or DCS remote with the AIU. It also features fast switching for non-derailing operation. The DZ-2500 is compatible with GarGraves, Ross, Curtis or Atlas switches.”

I added the colored ring terminals (spray painted ‘em myself) for ease of identification; to create a certain electrical connection, and prevent accidental shorting caused by the wires touching each other. The red wire is for power, the black for ground or common, the blue and white for the MTH AIU connection respectively and the yellow and green for the non-derailing operation. Also notice that each ring terminal is soldered.

The principle behind the non-derailing operation is basically the same as the fiber pins in the legs in the switches of the Lionel version, “by isolating a section of rail on each direction of throw of the switch, you can wire the DZ-2500 for non-derailing operation. As the train approaches the switch it connects the L or R terminals to COMMON and causes the switch to throw in the direction to prevent a derailment of the train.”

The documentation for this with regards to regular switches is on the Z-Stuff website and a paper version comes with the Ross Custom switches.

But, the Ross 3-way switch is actually one physical switch that uses two switch motors, as the moveable frogs cradle each other and must be fired in a certain order for it to work, otherwise one frog will push against the other.

Not being an electrical engineer, I used my accounting skills in order to figure out the correct wiring for this configuration.

I actually used a spreadsheet program to compute all of the logical different possibilities.

As collectors, what would we be without variations and exceptions to the rules?

There are colored LEDS in these switches, and like prototypical NYC subway signals, I wanted green over green to represent a straight route.

“For maximum compatibility with DCS and its AIU, the DZ-2500 has a special DCS compatibility mode. This permits the BLUE and WHITE wires to be used as THRU and OUT control wires respectively, when connected to the AIU, SC-2 ASC3000 or a DZ-1002 remote.”

You will notice that when the moveable lever (“finger”) of the switch is pointed towards the left, the switch itself is pointed in the straight direction on the left switch and the green LED is lit and the right switch. By holding down the button on the switch motor, you can reassign the colors of the LEDS, and I did this on the right switch.

Because of this, I had to reverse the yellow and green wires on the right handed switch.

Before you permanently connect either the green or yellow wires for the non-derailing feature, you should test it first before making the connection, just to make sure because of all of the different command control configurations; which side you locate your switch motor, which system you are using, etc.

Now my three way switch works flawlessly when a single train approaches any of the legs.

This track arrangement lends itself to only the limitations of your own imagination. Creating routes only adds to this enjoyment. It is way cool to press one button and have all the switches align in the pre-assigned path.