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Three Rail Track |
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I now know why Joshua Lionel Cowen (the creator of Lionel) invented three-rail track. Yes, I realize it doesn’t look realistic. I’ve never seen a real train track that has three rails…however; I’ve heard they did exist for some kind of trolley or something… Joshua Lionel invented the three-rail track to solve problems and add performance. Let’s talk about reverse loops: When you loop a two rail DC track back into itself you have a direct short as one rail is negative and the other is positive… so you have to buy a special switch or use two transformers or blocks etc… With three rail track, the center rail is hot while the two outside rails are grounds. Well when you reverse the track back onto itself there is no short because both outsides are negative and the inside is positive!!! A great help! Now the real beauty of three rail is this: you can insulate an outer rail by prying up the black clips on an outer or inner rail…and put insulating material around the rail and push the clips back down… look at the center rail, it is insulated already. Now you use a nylon connector pin at each end of the insulated rail section(s) and hook an accessory to that outer insulated rail, then hook the power or hot wire from the accessory to the accessory terminals of the power pack…now that accessory will light up or activate only when the train passes over it! The metal wheels complete the circuit. A great idea I have for this is that you could insulate one rail on a bridge and hook bridge lights to it…then the lights will only be on when a train is on the bridge!!! Yes, you can hook the hot wire of the accessory to the middle rail for power…Lionel did this with their accessory clip. However, it is best to hook the hot accessory wire to the power pack accessory terminals because that way you get steady voltage to the accessory instead of robbing the train of power. |
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