I just started building my switch yard & had a few questions. I have tried to lay the switch ladders very accurate, but they still seem to sway a bit. Also, sometimes some of the cars like to pick the switches. Are there any helpful hints out there on how to lay these #5 switches, or any way to fix the problems. They just don’t seem to be that smooth.
Also, I have noticed that some of the swiches carry power through them & some are not. I wonder if this is because the ties have been disconnected from the solder. Any help would be appriciated.
Thanks for the reply. I have a gauge & everything seems to be fine, I just really wanted to know if there were any tricks of the trade so to speak for switches.
I don’t know the layout of your ladder, but in general, points near curves are problematic. When I have such an arrangement, I like to glue a guide rail to keep the wheels against the rails prior to hitting the point. Sometimes I’ve filed points to get a better edge. And make sure nothing is obsructing behind the point that causes it to stick out even a little bit. If stuff is floating glue it down or spike it. As for loss of powe, the Atlas connections are not soldered. It is easy to lose contact, especially with the frog rails. It’s a good idea to solder a jumper from the frog rails to the stock rails. You can also solder jumpers to the points, but these connections are a little more robust than the frog rail connections.