Ztrains: Z Scale Turnouts

Some Basic Turnout Terminology

I was fortunate enough to have met a man who like me and many others, was looking for a viable alternative to Marklin's turnouts. Not finding anything that offered superior performance while maintaining visual continuity with Marklin track, he set about developing his own. In the last year he has developed the Wright Turnout, featuring a live, all metal frog. No more "gentle" tapping on your board to coax a steam engine through a turnout.

The point rails can be switched from either a manual ground throw, or an under the table mechanism. Another key feature is the one piece construction of the wing, closure and point rails giving the turnout a much more prototypical appearance, as well as a continuous and stable electrical path. These new turnouts match the Marklin footprint exceptionally well (the ties even have a Marklin-like wood grain!) which will greatly simplify integration into current layouts. While there are some European makers producing alternate Z scale turnouts, none can act as a direct replacement for a standard Marklin turnout, until now.

Here are a couple of diagrams that illustrate the key parts of the new turnout, as well as some basic terminology as it applies to turnouts. Since the frog, wing rails, closure rails and point rails all share the same polarity, they are all powered from a single wire attached at the frog. There are two gaps cut into the frog rails just past the heel of the frog to prevent a short circuit in the track. The point rails are switched not a by a throwbar, but by an under the track, "unitary linkage", an innovative design of Peter's. This linkage will accept an actuating wire from any standard manual ground throw or electric motor.

You can visit Peter Wright at his website for further information:

http://www.wrightturnouts.com

Thanks to Peter Wright, Gary Click of Nortrak and Manfred Gottschalch.

August 18, 2008

NTS 2008 Video: Steve Gibbs