Jerry:
I use Atlas O track and Ross turnouts. To answer your questions -
1. They line up just fine. As mentioned above you could use the transition joiners but like it was mentioned they are very fragile, hard to install without breaking and will break if you try to remove. You can shave off a piece of the Ross track tie and use the Atlas joiners as mentioned also. A third option is to simply butt the track together (you will need to cut off the Atlas O connector pin) and wire power/ground to both sides. I have not tried this method as yet so do not know if the wheels will spark transitioning from one track to the next but if so a small wire can be soldered from rail to rail to solve this.
2. The 'knock' on Atlas O turnouts was with their switch motors. The motors, electro-mechanical, were prone to burning out if power was applied too long. The culprit was the button controls that shipped with the turnouts. The buttons tended to stick. When power was applied too long the wire coil would heat up and basically melt the plastic surrounding the rod that moved back and forth freezing the motor. A new heavy duty control was designed but last I heard all were recalled for I think the same issue. A lot workarounds have basically 'solved ' this issue. One was to use momentary toggle switches of higher quality than the push buttons. Another approach was to install a diode 'rectifier' in line from the toggle switch to the motor to cut the AC waveform in half (basically make it a DC waveform) to limit current to the switch motors or simply use DC to power the switch motors. Because I use both Ross and Atlas O turnouts I opted to install AC, use heavy duty 1 amp toggle switches (overkill) and add the diodes for the Atlas O turnouts. The Ross motors don't need them and will not work with the diodes connected (this is because the internal circuitry of the motor already contains a diode).
The Atlas turnout itself is fine. In fact as motors burn out (not any since the diode / toggle switch circuit was added) I would take the diode out of the circuit and replace the Atlas motor with a Z-1000 motor that is used on the Ross switches. Although I would prefer to, this is cheaper than replacing with a Ross turnout.
Hope this helps
Joe
