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Showing posts from September, 2014

No.103 Have I missed the point – CDUs with Peco solenoids

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I recently added my two-pennies-worth to an RMweb question about motorising Peco points. As a consequence and after some thirty years of playing with model trains I have now installed a couple of Capacitor Discharge Units (CDUs). What do I think? Well I have mixed feelings.  First some pictures (scanned images) going back in time to earlier layouts. Control panels with push buttons Bracken Ridge This was the Bracken Ridge layout from the early 1980s. I cannot remember but I don’t think model railways had heard of CDUs in the early 80s. Certainly I didn’t use a CDU and the Peco solenoids attached to my points were operated by momentary contact switches wired in parallel directly from the 16v auxiliary AC supply from my Hammant and Morgan controllers. Control panel Park View NB Hi-tech wire connectors to controller By the 1990s we had moved house and all the track, point motors and switches were reused in the new Park View layout. Again it never occurred to me nor