I have about 20 Atlas switches. In many cases the switches needed to be modified so that I can run various engines slowly through them without the engines stalling. In some cases I found the blackening on the rails to be too thick, and good contact with the rollers was not possible. I ended up sanding the center rail down so that all the blackening was gone. Then used some "gun blue" on the rail to turn the rail black again. Continuity then became very good. In addition, in some cases the spacing between the rollers was a problem, as an engine could have rollers that were on two switches with both rollers not making contact with the third rail. There are a couple of ways to get around this. One way is to add a roller to the tender. The other is to add an "extension" to the third rail. Attached are a few pictures which illustrate the extension I made, and this works well..hope this helps.
The material I used is thin copper, purchased in a hobby shop (sold in sheets). Solder a wire to it, and connect to the same power source as the tracks around it. I also blackened with "gun blue". Easy, permanent solution.
