Is the code 83 wye turnout a number 3? I can’t seem to find a quick answer.
And, now that I’m asking, is there any reason to avoid it?
The Atlas Customline WYE has a #3 frog - perfect for using with a #6 turnout(think of it as a #6 to both sides).
Jim
How are you going to drive the turnout? I have a number of Atlas turnouts, but I’ve belatedly come to the conclusion that I hate seeing the switch machines, so lately I’ve been buying Peco’s. The Peco machine hides nicely beneath the track, although it does take a capacitive discharge circuit to drive it reliably.
Bruce,
Let us know how those ‘clip on’ Peco motors work out. They sure look easy to mount after getting that square hole cut in the roadbed. I hope they are as good as the Peco turnouts.
I use Tortoise motors for my staging and ‘hard to reach’ turnouts. I want super reliability and the Tortoise motors have delivered. I used to use the Kemtron/PFM/NJ ‘twin coil’ machines, but they need adjustment every year or so, and the SPDT momentary switches that control them seem to go bad over time as well(5-10 years). At least the CD unit that drives them did not burn up. I have had Tortoise motors for about 7 years - NO adjustments and NO failures. My ‘normal’ turnouts have Caboose Industries high level switch stands - Also very rugged. When folks first started buying those ‘expensive’ Tortoise motors, at first I was glad I had a good supply of the ‘twin-coil’ standard of model railroading ones(I learned my lesson). I knew of a club with 175 of the twin coil machines. After about 5 years, they were swapping out a machine every week or so. The pile of them on the workbench for ‘rebuild’ just kept on growing. BTW, I have only 3 Tortoise motors for ‘hard to reach’ areas in the ‘on stage’ part of my layout. It was just to hard to reach the switch stand without my fingers slipping and wrecking something. I have 7 of them in the ‘staging’ area. Another 40+ turnouts are controlled by the switch stands…I like to walk along with the train and ‘do the work’…
Jim
I really like the Peco switch motors. Yeah, they are twin-coil, but combined with the Peco turnouts they’ve been great. I’ve had a couple of them installed for about 10 months now with no problems. The motors really are designed for the Peco turnouts, though. They will not hold a set of points against the rails without the Peco spring mechanism which comes with the turnout. I did have a couple of them on some old Shinoharas, and I found I had to periodically “re-throw” the turnouts to keep them close enough even to prevent derailments, forget about good electrical contact. I had other problems with the Shinoharas (well, they were 40 years old and brass) so I replaced them with Pecos and I’ve been happy ever since.