Hey look! Atlas Switches!

Very nice! I have approx 40 Atlas turnouts, circa 2005 to present, and have only had some arcing issues. A little grinding and clear coating of the rails helps Good progress so far.

Cesar

What do you mean? I can't visualize what you are trying to say. Thank you.

quote:

don't power the other 1/2 of your layout across the switch

Trevize,

I run all Atlas O switches (about 25) and, after correct wiring, they are just fine. The switch mechanisms need an update, but (if the spring stays put) they work.

Eliot

I have had the same great success after paying close attention to the wiring details. Interesting that we both used the same switch setup of the number 5's at both sides of a double slip. But this may just be the coincidence of a very common setup application to gain access across several mains.

As to the question of a longer engine vs others with colser pickups, no problems here with a variety of engines, including very old post war stuff with closer pickups. I may not be able to "crawl" with the smaller stuff, but all run just fine.

I had a lot of problems with Atlas switches before I understood the wiring. Once I stopped assuming that the underbelly gave me the proper connections, and powered EVERYWHERE I could, things were dramatically improved. Should I have to do that? No, but putting in what I saw as some redundency seemed prudent, and it paid off big time. My early frustration brought me very close to trashing a lot of switches and I considered replacing with RCS. That would have been 40+ switches and a huge expense. Now I can make better use of that money, and may even consider the Ross turntable in the future.

I will most likely also try Ross switches when I need anything new, but you can bet the notion of redundency and extra wiring will happen from the git-go. It's just a smarter way to do things. Again - the BEAUTY of the things I have learned on this forum from the experience of many others.

THANK YOU GUYS - ALL OF YOU!

I've have no problems with wiring since I feed power on all three sides of my switches anyway. I'm also very happy with the Atlas under-table switch machines.

Trevize, are you an Asimov fan?

David: I figure the Atlas rail joiners are good at conduction current for at least 5 or 6 joints. Therefor, I have had good luck placing a drop every 10 t0 12 joints. If a siding has less the 12 joints in it, 1 power drop in the middle should work fine. Of course the actual distance can vary greatly depending on lengths of track being used. Just make sure the joiner is tight. If it goes on too easily, I take it back off and and close the gap in the top and place it back on. Some of the joiners will just loose their stiffness after 3 or 4 insertions and I find it better to just throw it away and use a new one.

Happy railroading,
Don

quote:

Originally posted by Norm Charbonneau:
I've have no problems with wiring since I feed power on all three sides of my switches anyway. I'm also very happy with the Atlas under-table switch machines.

Trevize, are you an Asimov fan?

Yes. How'd you guess :=)

I have 45 Atlas and 12 RCS turnouts on my layout. No problems with the Atlas, but I can't say that about the RCS with the DZ-1000.

I had three of the Atlas that I had to reposition the small plastic actuator, but after that, all have worked fine. RCS have caused some derailments, though just with specific engines and cars, but they have not been reliable operation-wise with the DZ-1000 in spite of many attempted fixes.

Alex

Have you tried #7.5s with various postwar? It would help if someone could show a picture of the wiring on all three sides. Or are you simply saying that the track on all sides has a power drop which then connects to the switch. My 7.5s have a lot of trouble even after tinkering. Thanks

Lookin good Trevize. You got a lot done since I left on Saturday.

quote:

Norm Charbonneau Posted January 22, 2012 10:07 AM Hide Post
I've have no problems with wiring since I feed power on all three sides of my switches anyway. I'm also very happy with the Atlas under-table switch machines.

Trevize, are you an Asimov fan?

Norm's Train Blog
http://normstrains.blogspot.com

Norm,

Do you feed power just to the center rail on the three sides, or do you also feed the ground to the outside rails? Just want to know if I'm killing a fly with a hand grenade by doing so.

Thanks!

Thanks Norm! A pic would be helpful when you get a chance.

Skip, hope this helps. As you can see, it's nothing too radical. I have two runs of 14-2 if I want to power each loop separately someday. Right now the whole layout is one circuit (TR 1) so they're tagged together at the output of the TPC.



The red arrows show the approximate feeder locations on my layout:

Thanks again Norm!

quote:

Note: 4x 2 rail cars (meaning 2 rail flanges) with back to back Atlas #5 switches with an Atlas #5 double cross over in the middle. This is likely the worst case scenario and yet... At a crawl of 3 SMPH there's no issues.

I missed that the first time around. I haven't been able to do that with my 2 rail flanged passenger cars through a double slip switch.

However, I think one of my double-slips might be out of alignment. I'll try it on my new one when I get it installed.