al wrote:

Sticky switch points have a variety of remedies
1. Check for flash, crud, carpet fuzz, dirt and whatever in the turnout
making it stick. With the switch motor removed or disconnected, the
points should move very freely. Sometimes the rivets that retain the
points are clinched too tight.
2. As you have noticed, twin coil machines draw a lot of juice. Make
sure they are getting enough. I wire my turnouts with at least #18
wire. The #22 or #24 used by the phone company is too small. Also, the
inductive kickback from a twin coil machine makes the push button
switches arc, which cruds up the contacts after a while. A major bennie
of capacitor discharge turnout power packs is reduction of arcing in the
push button switches. Few to no power packs have enough omph to flip
two twin coil turnouts simultaniously. Some lesser HO power packs have
difficulty powering locomotives and switch machines at the same time.
3. If the turnout is on the rug, or slightly bent, the crossbar can drag
on the rug and slow the machine down.
4. Twincoil machines work fine on AC. If you can find a beefy 12 or
12.6 volt transformer, you can mount it in a box and you have a turnout
power supply. As long as you make sure the hot connections to the AC
line are properly covered (like inside the box) to prevent touching them
by accident, and you have some strain relief on the power cord, you are
good to go.

Good luck

David Starr

David Starr