Kato turnouts

[Jerry K]

Hi all, newbie here. On my layout i have a spur with turnouts on each end, and would like to isolate that. My questions are: do kato #6 turnouts need to be isolated, if yes,before or after frog? And i will be installing a terminal in middle of spur( is that proper)

Second question is i have a different spur, switch on entry only...isolate turnout or not and 1 terminal after turnout.

Using a secondary kato 22-018

With 22-850 power control switch.

Am I on the right track?

[cteno4]

Jerry,

 

Kato points are power routing so it will automatically turn off the power to the non common (inside) rail when pointing to the other direction for you.

 

so in your first case if you put both points to the passing track the. Power will not go to the mainline between the points (assuming you do t have a feeder in that section of track) and route power to the passing track. This way you can store a train on the passing or intervening mainline while running on the other track.

 

on your second case power only goes to the spur when the point is switched to the spur and off when not pointing to the spur so you can store a train in there while running on the main w.o having to isolate and do block power switches.

 

lets you get away with a lot without a lot of wiring other than the points and a few well placed feeders to the mainline.

 

of course you can use insulated rail joiners and a bunch of block control power switches and even route from one of 2 throttles To any block, just a lot more planning and wiring.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Jerry K]

Wow, makes it simple. Thank you Jeff

[cteno4]

Yes! Great way to start out with minimal wiring and the if you want to get more complicated you can as well if you want to!

 

Kato Unitrak was made for quick setup on the floor, so minimal of wiring and such to make this so.

 

one caveat on passing sidings is you want to engineer it with a left and right turnouts as if you use two of the same direction in a passing siding you will not get power routing without using some insulating joiners as the common rails will negate the power routing.

 

snap some together on the table and start playing!

 

enjoy!

 

jeff

[Jerry K]

Good info,  thank you