Wiring Switch Machines
Wiring the layout can provide some of the biggest challenges and most rewarding puzzles to solve. This page might eventually build into something more useful, but for now it's a scrapbook for ideas and items in need of a landing zone.
DZ-1000 Command Control
Getting the IC Controls (now Lionel) ASC3000 to play nice with with DZ-1000 switch machines is pretty straightforward. To simplify things and because I don't have a place for them, I've taken the push-buttons out of the picture. The only ways to operate the switches are via the CAB-2 or manually (by moving the small plastic lever in its crescent-shaped slot).
The above diagram is based on a DZ-Stuff instruction sheet. The original sheet is found at:
I heartily endorse Dennis Zander's stuff and have been using his gear for 9 years without a single failure.
Transformer
The transformer has just a 2-lead wire that normally goes to the track lockon. (Power plug to the wall outlet is not shown.) The DZ's are on the middle transformer below, taped down to 16 volts AC.
ASC3000 relay side, or device side (picture below)
With multiple switches, I've got a wire-nut on the solid-black wire from the transformer to connect the switches' power "ac" wire on each switch at the same point; and a wire-nut on the black+white wire to connect the relay-side "COMM" wire on each ASC3000 screw-down trio. Of these trios, COMM, 4O, 4T and COMM, 3O, 3T are shown wired below. The red wires below are going from each relay-side COMM to the wire nut with the switches' power black+white wire, off-picture to the left.The ASC3000 has 4 trios of "COMM, O, T" screw-down posts: this illustration shows 2 trio's in use, one trio vacant.
ASC3000 command side (picture above)
The ASC3000 also has 6 screw-down posts on the opposite side for Power and Command Control: these are to power the ASC3000, not the switches, and for the command signal to get from the command base to the ASC-3000. The leads on the command-side COMM, labeled DAT & COM, are daisy-chaining from the Legacy base's 9-pin connector and out to the next ASC-3000. The power A & U leads go to a separate, dedicated 12V power supply that isn't used for anything but powering this chain of ASC's.
Switches on the ASC3000, Lionel ASC, and SC-2 can be operated via whatever hand-held you have: if you got Legacy it's via CAB-2; if you got TMCC it's via CAB-1; if you added TMCC-1 to Legacy it's via either or both handhelds.
See below for a little more Q&A on the ASC's.
If you've added DCS then there are also ways to hook that in, but that's a topic for someone else's web page.
Ok, my wiring is not that neat here, but it's effective. That is, except when it breaks down. Which is apparently pretty often, considering my interest in passive non-derailing. (More on that later.) As we first leave the Nest, many wires are stapled; later I turned to cup-holders for a more flexible arrangement.
Routing bundles under the layout. All wires are at or above the level of the studs, laid flat to conserve storage/working space clearance. That's the dedicated 12VDC power supply for the ASC's command-side connections on the left, converted from an old PC tape-drive chassis.
A sheet of cardboard tacked over exposed wires is very effective at preventing snags from below.
And, voila! Wires routed from the ASC3000 to the switch, just like in the diagram above. What could be simpler?
Active vs. Passive non-derailing
The wire connecting the switch machine to the switch's throwbar is a nice light spring steel that will often let locos and cars push through without derailing. But if you have cars weighting less than 16 oz - and most of us do - they will tend to ride up on the points and derail or short the track. DZ has a couple different kinds of spring-steel thowbar wires, but the bottom line is, you're better off with "active" non-derailing action (where the switch is thrown so the points are where they belong when a train passes through). The next few discussions describe my attempts to simplify wiring for active non-derailing.
DZ-1000 non-derailing
I've had great success with DZ-1000 switch machines; with the various wires, transformers, ASC-3000's, etc I've surrounded them with, not so much. 3 switches are too far back on the layout to reach easily. This has made for difficult wiring, and it seems I have more problems on thise 3 switches than anywhere else on the layout. Upgrading from NJI's to DZ-1000's was a big step forward, but I still had all sorts of problems with the ASC-3000 operations and the transformers to power the switches. Plus I could not seem to crack how to wire the switches for non-derailing, the most important aspect for me on these switches, since they are all associated with level-changing grades, one of which is hidden at the back of the layout.
You can see the "L" (orange) and "R" (yellow) wires between the ties in the foreground switch.
The background switch (photo above) shows these two wires disconnected from the DZ1000 on the back switch. Since I'm using a separate power supply for the ASC3000-controlled switches (the ASC3000 is only rated for 16VAC max), I don't want to use track power for the non-derailing action. I guess the risk of supplying power through both the ASC and the track is low, but I didn't want to risk it.
This foreground switch (photo below) is wired to track power only per the diagram above. As the 2 tracks come in from a tunnel, you can see why I wanted to ensure the non-derailing would work every time!
This is the simplest system I have devised and it has been trouble-free since installation on 2 of those 3 switches (the 3rd switch I never installed a DZ-1000 on, just left that one to languish in disrepair for seven years, occasionally trying to refit new NJI machines, none of which lasted more than a few dozen throws in that location.) Manual operation is generally by reaching wa-a-ay over to handle the lever by hand, or by using the CAB-1 antenna tip to short the gap on the desired route. With the introduction of Legacy (and a semi-fragile bridge at layout's edge) I've invested in a 2' stick with a small notch cut for the lever tip.
The above diagram is based on a DZ-Stuff instruction sheet. The original sheet is found at:
I heartily endorse Dennis Zander's stuff and have been using his gear for 8 years without a single failure.
DZ-2500 non-derailing
Based on a conventional user's correspondence with Z-Stuff, here is my take on non-derailing wiring
for a conventional-layout DZ-2500.
The only real difference is where I show the gap and the yellow & green wire attachments.
You do not need to cut the rails on the switch, just leave the gap where the switch connects to
the track as shown below. I use toothpicks whittled down to a pin shape; I've also had good
luck using nothing in the gap.
The yellow & green wires must connect on the frog side of this gap.
That way they have no power except when the train's metal wheels touch both the powered track
and short rail leading to the frog, closing the gap electrically.
I'm a command-control guy though, so ...
This is how I'll wire in my DZ-2500's and DZ-2001 when I get around to it.
The DZ-2500 non-derailing diagram on the DZ-Stuff page shows a relay DZ-1008
that I have tried removing. I might also try it without the DZ-2502 button.
The above diagram is based on a DZ-Stuff instruction sheet. The original sheet is found at:
I heartily endorse Dennis Zander's stuff and have been using his gear for 8 years without a single failure.
Switch Wiring Diagrams: Do I really need to cut my rails there?
The switch wiring diagrams I show above are different from those you'll find on the Ross, Z-Stuff, and most other sites. What if the switches shown above had metal frogs? The non-derailing wires would both activate any time one of them did, activating both of the switch machine's coils at the same time and (at best) resulting in a failure to throw the switch. So, *if* your switch has a metal frog, you do need to cut the rails as shown below:
This wiring diagram seems to show the non-derailing leads going into the ends of the switch's rails, with a cut before the frog on each of those rails. If you assume you're adding tracks with no gaps to the ends of all 3 track ends in this diagram, then you haven't added non-derailing at all: you've simply cross-connected the track power with the switch power source. When I'd look at diagrams like this (and they are pretty much all like this, from most all the vendors I've seen) I'd just figure, "hmm, that doesn't look like it'd work out right."
But again, it helps to remember, these switch machines could be used on any number of switches... and many older switches had metal switch frogs (some still do, and perhaps most 2-rail switches still use metal frogs). Then you will need those gaps between the frog and the switch's wires, as described above. And the connections to the rest of the track? You just have to drop the assumptioin that everything you don't see will be connected without gaps.
If you put gaps on those inside rails to the left of the wires, as shown above, you have a successful isolation between the track power and the switch power. And, if you have a metal frog, those 2 cuts to the right of the wires have given you the isolated sections you need to make this work.
The other common diagrams to show double gaps are usually related to 2-rail switch wiring. With a 2-rail switch leading to a reversing loop, you may need a double gap around a rail section longer than your longest engine, in order to reverse the polarity of the rails while the train works its way around them. With 3-rail you don't run into this, but for conventional running you still get block control and multiple-block insulating/wiring that gets pretty complex. That's what I like about 3-rail, though: we don't need to worry about insulating rail sections, reversing polarity, etc. And it what I like about command control: we don't need to worry about block control or which transformer is powering what track, we can just run the trains all on one big ol' layout!
Lionel ASC & IC Controls ASC-3000
The Lionel ASC is still a current product and is commonly available. The IC Controls ASC-3000 is no longer in production (Lionel bought IC Controls and has continued production with several updates to the product). The ASC-3000 manual is out of print. The Lionel ASC manual can be found here:
Other manuals including all the current switch-controller devices can be found at:
by selecting Trainmaster Command Control from the "Choose a Category" drop-down menu.
If you already have Lionel ASC's or IC Controls ASC-3000's, I'm sure you are already familiar to the notion that the COMM lines on the device side are COMMon Power to the switch, while the COMM lines on the control side are COMMunication DATa and COMmon. The AX lines on a Lionel ASC do not appear on the IC Controls ASC-3000, and I don't think they are used for anything.
On the control-side, I recommend using a separate power supply for the daisy-chain of ASC's. I have a 12VDC power supply dedicated to just the ASC's control-side power. That power supply has nothing else on it.
I also recommend using separate power supplies for the relay-side (device-side) connections. I have a starter-set transformer taped down at 16VAC for several ASC's and an HO transformer taped down at 12VDC for a couple others. Each of these has nothing else connected to it.
On the relay-side, the ASC-3000 has 4 COMM lugs where the Lionel ASC has 2. Really only one is needed in most applications: on every one of my ASC's, I've simply ganged 4 leads into a single COMM power supply.
On the relay-side, technically you can mix power supplies on a single ASC, for example you could use a 16VAC power supply on one or two switches and a 12VDC power supply on two others. This is due to the fact that the ASC is 4 discrete relays, each with its own separate COMM leads going to its own Out and Thru leads. I have not had success with this. The 2 ASC's I tried this on became a bit flaky after trying this.
On the relay-side, you can also mix power supplies on a chain of ASC's, for example you could use a 16VAC power supply on one or two ASC's and a 12VDC power supply on two others. This is due to the fact that each ASC is a discrete unit, each with its own separate PCBoard in addition to the separate COMM leads going to their own Out and Thru leads, in spite of the fact that on the control-side they share daisy-chained Power (A/U) and data (COMM DAT1 and COM) lines. I have definitely had success with this. On the relay-side, currently I have 4 ASC's on one 16VAC transformer and another on a 12VDC transformer (the Railpower 1300 pictured above). On the control-side, all my ASC's run on one daisy-chain for their power lines.
Passive Non-Derailing
Given the challenges I have with wiring I prefer to figure out how I can make things not fail mechanically when my wiring does fail electrically. I have had fairly good luck in my efforts to get the DZ-Stuff switches going in a passive non-derailing setup, with cars conforming to NMRA rolling-stock weight standard RP-20.1. This recommended paractice calls for O scale cars to weigh 5 oz + 1 oz per inch of car body. A 10" boxcar, at 15 oz, has little trouble in most cases on an 11-degree or O54 switch. But it has trouble on O31-O54 switches (as does most everything else: these switches are a decidedly non-prototypical favor to those of us who insist on toy-train operating dimensions on a well-crafted layout).