Points motors

[Andy9202]

Hi all, new to the forum and model railways, last train I handled was Hornbys Evening Star, yes that long ago, anyway back to today, I am building a layout with my son and have started laying the track, we're going full DCC as it's a new layout.  My question is, what point motors would be best to use, I've been looking but basically as there's a few out there I'm now at a loss as which to choose, any help would grateful.

[Caz]

Hi Andy, welcome to the forum and the world of DCC.  I use mainly Seep PM1 point motors as they are cheapish and reliable and come with a built in switch to switch the frog current if needed.  A couple of places (my scissors cross over for instance) I've had to use the Peco ones due to the closeness of the mounting of the motors.  The only drawback with Peco is that they normally need a largish hole being made in the baseboard but I cover this with a a piece of thin black card with just a small slot for the actuating pin.

I'm Digitrax and use the CML Electronics range of accessory decoders to control the points, depends on what system you are as to what to use.

[port perran]

Welcome aboard Andy.
Looking forward to seeing pictures of your layout as it develops.
I can't help with DCC as I'm very much a DC dinosaur but I too use Seep point motors which are relatively easy to install (even for an electronics dunce like me) and they seem to be very reliable. They do, however, require a bit of soldering and they are a bit noisy.

[Andy9202]

Thanks, that's one I haven't seen so I'll be looking at them this weekend, I was looking at either Prodigy, digiitrax or Bachmanns new Dynamis Ultima, but still not made mind up yet.

[cjdodd]

If you want a simple DCC solution you could also take a look at the DCC Concepts Cobalt iP Digital, but it depends what you budget is.

http://www.dccconcepts.com/catalogue/a/Point-Motors-Cobalt-iP-Digital

Pretty much plug and play

[Sprintex]

Thanks, that's one I haven't seen so I'll be looking at them this weekend, I was looking at either Prodigy, digiitrax or Bachmanns new Dynamis Ultima, but still not made mind up yet.

With regard to DCC systems most people will recommend the one they're using, but depending on your location the best thing you can do is go visit one of the specialists like DCC Supplies or Digitrains so you can get a feel for the controls personally. I visited Digitrains and tried a few, got some very impartial advice without any sales pressure, and came away with a different one to that which I thought I wanted beforehand


Paul

[Newportnobby]

Hi Andy, and welcome to the forum
Another vote for Seeps here (although I haven't fitted them yet ) mainly for the under board mounting, the relatively small space they take up and they only require a small slot cutting into the baseboard surface.
If you hadn't got the track already I'd have suggested you go Kato for sheer simplicity.

[sparky]

If you are going to throw them from DCC supply then cobalt ip digitals have an inbuilt decoder and are not that expensive if you buy in 12 packs and just need a couple of feeds from your DCC bus each and have inbuilt switches to easily wire up to a frog or signal etc......I would however have a separate DCC accessory bus for running the points only as this allows you to switch a point if a short occurs due to incorrectly setting  the point against an oncoming loco...with DCC depending on the system you chose it is very easy to set up chains of macros to throw a number of points at the same time from the handset...I find this easier than using a control panel and you quickly become familiar with which macro does what.

[DELETED]

Re the peco point motors: I don't think they need a big hole -it's determined by the throw of the point not the motor in my experience so I've just always dremeled / drilled a small slotted hole.  Not sure how they would need a bigger hole than anything else.  Having said that if you wish to switch polarity I gave up on the peco add-on contacts and used simple small microswitches glued on.  Not difficult (and quite cheap) but you may want something better straight out of the box.  Can't really comment on the other types though and I personally would never put points on DCC.  Peco was always cheap and cheerful though sometimes I worry about the "thwack" each way over time and I did see a point break once.

Cheers,

Rich

[Bealman]

G'day from Australia, Andy, and welcome to the NGF! 

My own layout uses Peco point motors exclusively as when I started out they were the order of the day. However, they can be difficult to work with.