I’m having problems with some Atlas Custom Line Turnouts. All of them where installed 20 years ago; or, so and worked great, up until recently. I’m finding them to have electrical continuity problems. I’m finding not only are the point rails dead, but the closure rails are also dead. Has anyone else run into this problem and if so, have you found a fix and what was it? I do not have any unused turnouts to flip over, so I can trace the circuit of how the juice gets from the stock rails to the closure/point rails. I used to know this; but, it has been years since I paid any attention and they seemed to work flawlessly. Any help will be appreciated!
The points get their power from the closure rails. If they are the older ones, the rivets get loose and contact gets weak there. The newer ones do not use rivets and work better.
The closure rail is jumped to its nearby stock rail right at the points, with that little metal plate that the points pivot on - old rivet or new style. Sounds like you may have lost that connection or it has become corroded.
The closure rails are them jumped under the frog with copper strips embedded in the plastic. So it depends somewhat on which direction the power feed is coming from as to which jumper connection might have failed.
All of these connections can be repaired if you have good soldering skills, just install wire jumpers to replace them.
Sheldon
If they are the style with the rivets, drill a hole through the rivet center through the road bed and sub road bed. Down through the hole put a feeder wire. Solder the end to the rivet and the other end to the appropriate bus feeder wire. I did this on mine. On some, I put a small wire from the river feeders to the point rails as well. Joe
LION just solders a jumper between the dead rail and the live rail. Test it out so that you are sure that you are not setting up a short for either route. Use a small flexible stranded wire for this.
ROAR
Thank you Sheldon, BA&PRR and Broadway Lion!
I’m going to try a small jumper from the stock rail to the closure rail, to see if this helps. I’ve found that the three turnouts where this has been a problem, the problem is with the divergent route.
Does anyone know if the jumpers Atlas used are spot welded to the rails; or, is it just that the rail and jumper are molded together, so they make contact. I’m guess they are not spot welded.
Again, thanks to all for your help!
I’ve had the point rail problem on a lot of Atlas turnouts (Custom Line, code 100). I think the diluted white glue I use to secure ballast would get into the rivets that hold the points. I solder a thin stranded flexible feeder wire to the point rails about 1/2 to 3/4 inch from the hinge, then drill a hole through the roadbed up near the rivets. The feeder then takes power directly to the points. I’ve started to do this at installation of the turnout. Its easier to solder the wires on the workbench.
On a couple of turnouts the closure rails went dead on the point side of the frog. A feeder wire was needed there also.
George V.
[:D]
I have noticed several posts about poor electrical contact on the moving rails on Atlas turnouts.
Has anyone tried liquid Graphite? There used to be a lock ease, liquid graphite.
I have tried a liquid oil type electrical contact with some success.
Just a thought. [2c]
Lee
I have used liquid graphite (Neolube) and it didn’t seem to help.