With great interest I have followed this topic. I was where he is now a few years ago.
I can not stress enough --- in the Atlas package picture above you will see the red wire has a black clip which will go to the center rail. The black wire has a silver clip to attach to one of the outside rails. WHY DO I SAY THIS? Because Atlas in their ultimate wisdom does NOT CHECK to see if this is correct. Of about 100 packs of these I had about 20 that were backwards and I DID NOT CHECK till I had shorting problems. CHECK THESE FIRST!!!
Now regarding the 3 prong switch -- attach the wire from the TIU, or Transformer if you are not using a TIU, to the CENTER Prong. Attach the TRACK wire to one of the outside prongs. When the switch is in the opposite direction of the prong you connected to it has made contact and you will have power to the track. If the switch is in the center or thrown to the side with the wire you will have NO power to the track. And Gunrunner John said it best. BUY A CHEAP METER. $9.99 at Harbor freight and sometimes even FREE!
Gunrunner John, GGG and a couple others are tops with DCS. They are doing a great job filling the ultimate ones shoes (Barry Brokowitz). You also might want to get his DCS book from MTH. It explains this pretty well.
My major problem was black connector on black wire and silver on red. I failed to check and just wired the complete layout ad then found they had some backwards. NO THAT'S a MAJOR headache as I solder all my connections. Had to go back and either pull track or cut and re-solder which throws going by color under the table off!
Curtis
Curtis
