What do you use to power Circuitron Tortises? (Also, Atlas C55 + Circuitron!)

[RidgeRunner]

Yesterday I finished fastening the first of several Circuitron Tortises to the underside of the blue foam scenery of my N scale C&O layout. I glued a piece of 1/8" aircraft plywood between the top and second layers of blue foam to have an attachment point for the switch motor.

I applied 12V to the motor, and whoa nellie! I thought it moved wayy too fast to be a "slow motion" switch machine. So what I did was construct a small circuit based on the LM317T voltage regulator to allow me to set the power at whatever voltage I wanted. I set it at 6-7 volts, and the turnout motor works sooo much nicer now! Also, I included a bridge rectifier so the circuit can be powered with AC, DC, or reverse polarity DC.

So what are you using to power your Tortises? Any other N scalers using them?

 

[Jim Cullen]

Jon,
I used a number of them on the old layout and powered all of them with two simple DC wall transformers. I think I used the 9v ones. Jim

 

[Roger Hensley]

I picked up a 9V AC/DC adapter from Radio Shack and then made an adjustable power supply using that as the source. I operate the Torty's at about 5.5VDC and they move nice and slow.

I also use the contacts on the Torty's for LED and a second power supply in the same box for LED signals.