wb47 posted:I have several atlas 0-72 switches. I was having a drop problem. The tender had about 3.5 inches between rollers. Should be enough. Tested the point of the switch and the tip has a disconnect from the rest of the point, kind of a joint there about an inch from the tip. There was no power in the tip. So I just cleaned the point of the power rail, and then no more drop. Maybe these rail tips should be soldered to the rest of the power rail?
When traveling L to R going straight through the switch, when the rear tender roller leaves the point of the hot rail (start of ruler) the front roller is on the beveled plastic tip that is seen on the center rail between 2.25" and about 3.25" There is a hot connection underneath the ruler that you can see sloping downward at just before 3". When the front roller comes to that sloped section its only contact seems to be with the plastic tip. The rear roller isn't in contact with a center rail so the tender loses power. With the front roller reversed, the roller spacing is 8.5 cm which is just at the point where the plastic starts to meet the center rail. Close, but not close enough to maintain power to the tender when the engine is run a low speed. The tender on the recent FEF has a roller spacing of just over 4.5" so it transverses my new run Atlas #5 switches just fine. I think that beveled piece needs to be plastic to avoid the wheel flanges from shorting as they go through the switch. Things are probably even worse with Atlas #7.5 switches. For me, GUNRUNNERJOHN's YLB is probably the easiest fix.
