Atlas turnout in a DCC layout

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi,

I am a newcomer to this fantastic hobby. I also find that there are so many things need to struggle to learn so I am sure I will have many questions to this forum in the future.

Here are my first three questions:

    1. How to connect Atlas Super-Flex track (Code 83)? I have several Atlas Super-Flex tracks and would like to connect them. It seems that I need to use some joiners. But on a flextrack, the track is tightly pressed onto the tie at the two ends of the track and it seems there is no space to insert the joiner into between. Do I need to cut off the first one or two ties in order to make space for the joiner?
    1. Where to buy 30" curved track? From numerous articles and forum discussions, people said that we need 30" curved tracks for larger locomotives and passenger cars because such trains will have much harder motion and will derail when they are on smaller radius curved tracks. But no one says where we can buy some 30" curved tracks. It seems that major manufactures (such as Atlas, Peco) only make curved track up to 24".
    1. How to power an atlas switch machine on a DCC layout? I am trying to build a small layout with DCC control so that I can learn this technique. I use a NCE Power Cab to power the track and to control the locomotives and it works very well. I also have a few Atlas Remote Snap-Switch (Item #540, 541). At this time, I don’t want to use DCC turnout switch control (I would like to do so later) so a push button control using the control box that comes with the switch is fine with me. The manual says connecting the power wire to the power track. So I connected these two wires to my layout track, which is powered by NCE Power Cab. Apparently, there is something wrong because the switch made some small noise but did not move at all. Is a DCC powered track not good to power a switch machine? For what I want to do here (using a push button control), how should I do to power the switch machine?

T

2

  1. Yep, just cut off the first tie or three. Save them though, so you can put them under the joint after you’ve connected the pieces of flex.

  2. You’ll need to use flextrack to make those size curves.

  3. Use an old DC transformer (like that comes in a trainset) to power the switch machines. Better yet would be a Capacitive Discharge Unit (CDU). I don’t have a link handy for wiring one of those, but I bet someone will.

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Thanks, Dan. I will try these out.

Thanks again.

Bigwall