I’m building a N scale layout, using 15 yr old brass track. I’ve been reading about live frogs vs insulated frogs. Which are Atlas turnouts? I noticed when my trains get into the turnout they stall. Do I have to do something to route power to these tracks?
Thanks,
Te Joe
Welcome to the forums.
I believe all Atlas turnouts are insulated frogs. In HO, short wheelbase locos can stall on turnouts. I imagine it is the same in N.
First be sure your tracks and wheels are all very clean. Brass track in notorious for tarnishing, thus making poor contact.
If you still experience stalling, check to see if the wheels are lifting slightly as they go over the turnout. It could be that the channel is not deep enough and when the flange goes over the frog it is lifting the wheel, breaking electrical contact. Get right down close to see if you can see it happening. If you do see lifting, take a small jewelers file and deepen the channel.
I think there are ways of attaching wires to help eleviate contact problems, but I will leave the description to someone who knows more about it than I do.
Good luck,
Richard
If they are like the HO ones, snap-track turnouts have plastic frogs, so they are dead and can not be powered. Snap-switches route power through both legs of the turnout, regardless of the position of the points.
N-Scale - brass track – I have to say I have never seen or heard of such a thing. As far as I know Atlas went nickel-silver for their N-scale track from the beginning, and I started N-scale in 1969. But yes all the old Atlas N-scale turnouts had plastic frogs.
Brass track has fallen out of favor. That’s one reason it’s almost always referred to as “old brass track.” I don’t think anyone makes it anymore. Brass and nickel-silver both oxidize naturally. The oxide that forms on brass track, though, is non-conductive, so cleaning brass track is a constant and necessary maintenance chore, while you can get away with much less frequent cleaning with nickel-silver. For the cost of track, it might be worthwhile to go with nickel-silver from the start.
Hi, Richard, Thanks for the tips. I got down close & noticed the engine would dip as it hit the frog, If I was going fast enough it would power thru the frog, but too slow it would sit there & spin wheels until it stalled. I tried UR tip, sanded the frog, used a small Xacto chisel, but to no avail. I tried several other turnouts w/the same results. The darned wheels sink down in the frog!! Anyone else have any tips??
Thanks,
TeJoe
Put some chewing gum in the bottom of the frog?
ROAR
I’ve never seen or heard of brass track in N scale either. I started in N scale with an Atlas train set in 1968.
I been modeling in or following N Scale since '68 and there never was brass track in N.
Hi, Everyone. I took Mr. Beasley’s advice & asked my CFO (my wife) for fifty bucks to order a RH, LH & wye turnout, so we shall see if this works any differently. I ran power to each yard track according to my Atlas book & I’m still having problems on one turnout, No power!! The CFO said to wait for my new turnouts as I’m making myself crazy!! ARGH!!! I’m really anxious to get all of my track laid & wired so I can start my scenicking (sic).
Oh, I’m also having trouble w/erractic operation, the loco runs very jerkily on some of the yard tracks. I recleaned all the tracks, rechecked the joints & recleaned the loco wheels.
Oh, another thing, does anyone know how to use Atlas’s 8.0 program for track layouts? I downloaded it but haven’t got a clue how to use it…Computer illiteracy strikes again!!
Thanks, guys for all of the advice
TeJoe
One of the new ones?
In addition to the wheels, some locomotives use wipers on the axle or back of the wheel to get teh power transfered into the locomotive. You might want to check and see if such contacts exist on your locomotive and clean those too. I know the HO scale Atlas yellow box SD24 was notorious for dirty wheel wipers.
I am glad you have verision 8.0. Whatever you do, DO NOT upgrade to version 10.0 It has more bugs than a flea circus.
The software is not real intuative to use. I actually PAID money for version #3 back when they sold it as a product. Through the years I’ve become quite proficient. I believe I had to work with it for several days before I finally figured out how to do anything useful. Of course the flex track tool is so much better now that it was back then. I guess I’m saying don’t give up. Use the imbedded help.
The first trick is that there are two different selectors to choose from when laying the track. There is a selector button that takes a piece of track and lays it in the work area. Then a different one for joining additional track to the existing one. When one lays the first piece of track the software automatically switches to the second selector. I think the first selector is the ICON with the arrow down, the second selector is the one with a over and down ar
Hi Tex, the turnout in question is one of the old brass ones. Yes there is such a thing. I bought them 15 yrs ago from a mail order company & I think I was trying to save money as they were offering them at half the cost of nickel silver. Boy, MISTAKE!! I received my new nickel silver turnouts this PM, so I’ll install them tomorrow & see what happens. The frogs do look smaller.
The locomotive is a Bachmann 2-8-0 Consolidation, so no wipers?? Does that only apply to diesel locos??
I’m sorry, but you are talking to a real computer dummy. i’ll try the Help thing.
Thanks,
TeJoe
Unfortunately I am not familiar with that specific locomotive. I would guess if it did have wipers they would be on the tender axles… but that is just a guess. I will further guess that it is not an issue with that engine. I’ve never heard of anyone mentioning it.
Sorry I’m not more help there. I remember being very frustrated with it at first. The funny thing is that I purchased 3rdPlanit software, I found it even harder to use when it came to trying to use commercial geometry turnouts. It was fine if I just said to use a #6, but an Atlas #6 it is like one comes to the edge of the world.
3rd PlanIt works fine for me with Atlas turnouts – I’ve used them in dozens of layout designs. Did you post your questions over at the Yahoo Group as suggested?
It has been so long ago, I don’t really remember. I do remember not being reall happy with the 3rdPlanit support people - at all. Seems like they kept answering the easy question they wanted me to ask not the hard question I was really asking.
Hi TeJoe. Just a quick reply to the Bachman 2-8-0 loco question - I’ve got an N Scale Spectrum 2-8-0 and it runs great. I actually just put a z scale decoder in the loco for the motor and a digitrax soundbug sfx in the tender for sound. If you look at the site links below (and others I’m sure) you can see some pictures of the engine to get an idea of how it’s put together
http://trainweb.org/nrmrc/dcc/conversions.html#bachmann
The pdf with pictures of the engine taken apart are here:
http://mvns.railfan.net/dcc//bach280_dec_inst.pdf
and here:
As far as I remember, the engine and tender pick up power from their wheels through wipers.
I also use Atlas N scale track and switches. They have the plastic frogs, but I haven’ had too many issues with stalling, more with some of the frogs or guardrails being too tall or not wide enough. I would recommend you get an N scale NMRA standards gauge and use it very thoroughly to checkout your switches before installing them.
MR has several articles about improving your trackwork and switches. Jim Hediger has covered it very well in his columns. Here’s a video link for using the HO gauge but it should apply to the n scale version as well…
Hope it helps.
Don K