Hi all,
I have found some old Atlas Custom Line Supreme curved right hand turnouts with manufactures #NS276 but cannot find any technical date on them, other than they do not seem to be made anymore. Does anyone know what is the outer and inner radius and the frog # and if they had given trouble in the past to cause the manufacture to be stopped?
Regards,
Mike.
Atlas curved???[%-)] I wasn’t aware any such thing existed. Are you sure they’re Atlas??
I’m with you, Loathar. I wasn’t aware that Atlas had made curved turnouts either.
Tom
They were imported by Atlas in the late 70’s/early 80’s. They are code 100, and have 18"/22" radius curves - quite tight. Mine are n/s, and the switch machine was part of the turnout. I cut it off with a razor saw. I still have one in my engine terminal(lead to the coal track).
Jim
Hi Lother and Tom,
Yes I was also surprised to see these curved turnouts when a friend produced them to replace two PECO setrack curved turnouts which were proving to have a too tight an inner radius. They looked like Atlas turnouts and underneath it actually has the Atlas name and codes MS256 and NS276 which according to an old 1980 Walthers cataloge was the Atlas Custom Line Supreme Turnout. In this 1980 cataloge this Atlas turnout range seem to have been available in a selection of materials, brass, mild steel (MS) and nickel silver (NS) and range of turnout sizes. #NS276 is the nickel silver right hand curved. I have managed to restore them to working condition, the internal slide contacts even route the correct polarity to the metal frog. They seem to be of a good design and therefore I was wondering why Atlas does not still supply these curved turnouts.
Regards,
Mike.
Jim,
Do you know who were the original manufacturers if Atlas imported the turnout range? Thanks for confirming the radius. Why did you cut off the switch machine? These two which I have worked on seem to be of a good design and are working well.
Regards,
Mike.
IIRC, they were manufactured in Europe(Roco or Cassido-???). I cut off the switch machine as I do not want those ugly blobs of plastic on my layout! I use Tortoise motors mounted under the layout or Caboose Industries ground throws. In this case, there is a Caboose Industries ground throw on this turnout. The turnout operates quite well and I have had no problems with it.
Jim
Jim, I was thinking it was Roco, too. Might be wrong ?
WOW! Learn something new every day! I sure wish they’d produce some code 83 curved turnouts. I bet they would sell well.
Now that you mention it, I may have had one of those on my layout about 20 years ago. Just didn’t pay any attention to what brand it was.
Atlas also imported a double-slip switch. This one worked a bit different, only needed one switch machine. I think my dad has one in the supply closet.
The frog # of a curved turnout is irrelevant. As the others have stated the inside radius is 18" and the outside is 22". What they didn’t say is that both are 30 degrees of curvature so that they fit right into a regular 18" snap-track circle. The 22" side doesn’t fit so well with the normal 22.5 degrees of curvature for the 22" snap-track pieces.
I don’t know if this is the reason for cessation of manufacturing, but the points are not connected as well to the throwbar as a normal Atlas turnout.
Personally I love these turnouts and purchase every one I can get my hands on.
Hmmmm… that means neither of you must read my posts very throughly because I mention them often and frequently. I even used two in my entry for the SpaceMouse 4x8 layout design contest.
I used a pair of these on an early layout. They worked well, but as I recall they have a rather large, out-of-scale frog. John Timm
As to the Atlas double-slit switches,
I found a half dozen of these at a hobby shop last year marked down to a near give away price. Never did find a use yet for them. They were bundled with the Atlas Terminal straight tracks which I needed for my roundhouse.
Does anyone know what would be the best code-100 curved turnout to use to fit into a 20" curve? I need one that will match Atlas code-100 flextrack. Or are there only 18" and 22" curved turnouts? Thanks
I believe that Walther’s (Shinohara) carries a code-100 turnout with the inside curve of 20" and the outside of 24".
Interesting discussion. I was looking thru my selection of double-curved layout today and ran across the Atlas boxes that contained some double-curved turnouts in both brass and nickle silver. The boxes have these two numbers on them depending on rt or left curves,…#125 & #126.
Yes they do appear to have an inside radius or 18" and an outside radius of 22"
I also found a number of Roco (from Austria) turnouts of a very similar design, and the same curvature. And they do have metal frogs.
If you are still around Mike I would be interested in what your friend was trying to run thru the Pecos that were ‘too tight’. their inner radius is quoted as 17 1/4", but i find they are VERY close to 18"
I hate to plunge into a necro thread, but since it Halloween…Atlas currently has a code 83 curved turnout in the catalog.
#595 & 596 30/22" radius
The are expecting a code 100 turnout in December #287 and 288 same radius.
Necro away.
I saw some Atlas code 83 curved turnouts at the train show the other day. IIRC, they have a big cast frog similar to the one on their code 83 #8 turnout. The 22 inch radius is too sharp for me so I’ll be using either my Walthers/Shinohara #8 with the 36/30 radius or Peco with the 60/36 raidius in code 83.
Going on 10 years since we last heard from Mike.
Rich