Some newbie Kato unitrack questions

[tripel7]

Hi all! 

Currently I have the M1 Kato unitrack oval with a whole bunch of straights, I've been looking to expand my track, and I have some questions you can hopefully help me with.

 

I want to add expansion set v3 to my layout, this composes a yard with a bunch of switches, if a train is parked on the death end track, and another train is on the oval, with the points all set for the train to remain on the oval, does the train on the dead end track stays in place, or do the switches feed current to other tracks regardless of their postion? 

 

Secondly, how many switch controllers does Kato 20-210 need, I'm going to assume its two, but I also wouldn't be suprised if its more. 

 

Third, I want the ability to convert my oval into a double oval with the super elevated curves, which pieces or expension packs are needed? I'm going to assume that I can connect the single track to adapter piece for the super elevation track pieces? 

 

Sorry if my questions seem a bit basic, but I'm still very new to N scale, and Plaza Japan doesn't really gives a lot of information about how or what regarding track pieces. 

[cteno4]

Tripel,

 

no worries ask way! 
 

Kato points are all power routing meaning the lower is routed to the track the point is routed to. So if you have a siding you can park a train on the siding and when the point is then switched to the mainline the train on the siding won’t have power. Passing tracks work the same way. The only caveat on passing tracks is you have to make a passing track with a left hand and a right hand points otherwise the common rails will keep the passing track live all the time, but you can fix this with insulated rail joiners in the right place.

 

#6 points are always power routing. #4 points you can turn the power routing on and off with some screws on the underside of the point.

 

the double crossover point only needs one controller, it either switched crossed over or straight thru, all 4 points are fired at once with a single connection.

 

jeff

[tripel7]

Thank you for your answer. I'm guessing that generally all Kato unitrack sections are compatible with eachother? So i can connect double tracked elements with single track elements? 

[cteno4]

Yep all Kato unitrack pieces click together with the same unijoiner system. Only thing that may not fit together is putting two girder bridge units side by side onto a double track piece as some girder bridges are a bit too wide for the 33mm double track spacing and meant only for single track use.

 

jeff

[Falcon]

Hi,

 

I build my 2 T-Truck-corner with 414/381  superelevated curve , the corner ends of both sides with 2 Single Truss Bridges !

I put it together with unijoiner,  ---click--- ok ! My spacing is also 33mm and the next unitracks are all single straight tracks.

 

Rainer

[cteno4]

It’s the plate girder bridges (20-452) which are too wide for two side by side to double track. About 2mm to wide. I’m actually in the process of wacking off one side of the walls to use these on a Ttrak module.

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

On 2/27/2023 at 12:16 AM, cteno4 said:

It’s the plate girder bridges (20-452) which are too wide for two side by side to double track. About 2mm to wide. I’m actually in the process of wacking off one side of the walls to use these on a Ttrak module.

 

jeff

Would one of the "Double Track Plate Girder Bridge" pieces not do the trick in that case? (20-455 through 20-458)

[cteno4]

Yes they would have, but the club member had already bought the single track bridges by mistake and not worth trying to send them back. So I’ll just slice the sidewall off one side of each for him and he can make a walkway or small divider to go between the two tracks and cover the seam up.

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

Makes sense, and I like the walkway idea. Could look great!

[cteno4]

I need to dig around, somewhere I have a large sheet of like 3’ wide etched metal gantry walkways.

 

jeff

[Robsr]

On 2/27/2023 at 7:16 AM, cteno4 said:

It’s the plate girder bridges (20-452) which are too wide for two side by side to double track. About 2mm to wide. I’m actually in the process of wacking off one side of the walls to use these on a Ttrak module.

 

jeff

Kato pics show a double elevated track connected to two single plate girder viaducts in their product photos

[cteno4]

Those were not the 20-452 series in the picture, there are a few single plate girder bridges and some can double up on 33mm track spacing but the 20-452s (and their other colored kin) are too wide by about 2mm

 

picture is worth a 1000 words!

 

jeff

[Bridgeperson]

I just got a silver single girder bridge piece and whenever the train goes over it, it powers down. Could anyone help me out with that?

[railsquid]

Sounds obvious, but gave you tried cleaining the rails? My Tomix girder bridge seems to be a perennial weak spot for power, probably because it's harder to clean.

[cteno4]

Maybe bad unijoiner connection to the bridge that stops when train weight is on it? Doubt it as it would need to cut off power feeding from both ends of the bridge (assuming you have power feed from both ends). Does it cut out at a single spot or right when the engine just gets on the bridge? Does it stop at the same point going both directions?

 

jeff