I laid the track on a layout a few years ago and when I got it back out of storage and finally got track cleaned well I encountered a problem I didn’t notice before. Several, but not all of the turnouts are not powered on one leg or the other, while all the rest are fine. Would painting the rail cause this, or are these not reliable to route power without powering each leg with feeders? Garrett
If they are Atlas custom line turnouts they are pretty much plug n play if you will and require no special wiring. Yes painting the turnouts can cause the problem you described, how do I know, I’ve done it more then once. What I do know is right after I pint the turnouts I take a little reducer or water depending on what I painted it with on a small q-tip the ones you get in Radio Shack for cleaning electronics they are a tad thinner then a normal one and get in between the points etc. and make sure all points of contact are free of paint.
Is one leg of the entire turnout not powered, or is it just the points? If it’s just the points, it may be they are not making good electrical contact with the metal tab on the pivot. If the entire leg on the whole turnout is dead, it’s obviously not getting electricity to it. I’m guessing you don’t have feeder wires soldered to the turnout? Are the turnouts connected to adjacent track with rail joiners? Are the rail joiners not soldered?
I’d start by making sure you have electrical continuity between the adjacent rails and the turnout rails. Then check the continuity between the point rails and stock rails and the metal pivot tab.
I think that we don’t have a clear train of thought here. I was at the store today; Do you think I should have purchased a quart of milk or 1 pig? I have arthritis, do you? Then, what do you think about the new or old Walther’s H10-44 pigs?
Jimmy