Fast Tracks

I am looking at getting a fixture for a gauntlet and have a place for it on my new layout however as i get all the stuff together for this I would also like to get all the stuff for wiring the gauntlet. Does anyone know or is there a diagram of how to wire the frogs for this and what i need??

Wiring a gauntlet is fairly simple, gap both frogs like you would a normal switch, then wire them along with the two middle rails and the frogs to a double pole double throw toggle switch. The middle pole would go to the frogs and middle rails, the outer two poles would go to the outer rails. What you want is so that when you throw the toggle to the right the middle rails and the frogs are powered by the left rail, when you throw the toggle to the left the middle rails and the frogs are powered by the right rail. You might want to move the gaps far enough back so that a train that is approaching the gauntlet will stop before getting to the point where they foul the other track. Wiring it this way only one train at a time can use the gauntlet at a time. You could use the other contacts on the toggle switch to run some dwarf signals so if the power is not set for you you would have a red light.

Hope this helps,
Andre

An alternative, though with some cost, would be to wire the two frogs to a Frog Juicer. I will grant that this will not provide any modicum of safety with respect to head-on collisions being protected against, but I've found any shorts on the layout during an ops session because someone forgot to line a switch properly to be quite aggravating.

Jon