Point springs

[Aussie 3 railer]

Hello All,

Not sure where this question should have gone as it encompasses two sections electrical and points.

Whats the general consensus about removing the springs from Peco points. I am going to be using servo motors for the switching side of things but haven't come across anything about leaving or removing the spring/s in place.

Dirk

[Tricky Dicky]

The need for the point springs is to ensure the moving rails make good electrical contact against the stock rails, they are normally removed when using stall motors like cobalts or tortoise as these exert a constant force against the stock rail unlike solenoids. I would imagine it would be OK to remove with servos which would tend to fight with the spring during movement and the high gearing within the servo would prevent any movement from the thrown position. Modifying the points takes out the poor connection problem anyway. I am not sure about unifrog points which as far as I know do not need any modification so again removing the spring for servo operation would be OK.

Richard

[Brian]

With Servos and Slow-motion motors (Not Solenoids) I always remove the over centre springs as they are not needed and also they defeat the slow movement of Servos or Slow motion/Stall type motors.

[Aussie 3 railer]

I decided on servos after reading Brian's article about the different options. Great article and very interesting.

Thank you for the replies. I'll remove the spings as suggested. These servos sure are a neat little gadget and barely take up any space at all and can be installed almost anywhere.

Dirk