Atlas Turntable and DCC

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

I recently bought the Atlas # 305 turntable and am more than a little confused over the wiring. According to the instructions, one wires the “A” positions with the same polarity as the lead-in track and the “B” positions in reverse polarity. The turntable apparently reverses the polarity of the bridge to match the “B” tracks when needed. According to the MR Forum: a Walthers turntable needs no reversing circuit to work in DCC. Is this also true with the Atlas unit? I have asked the same question to Atlas; but doubt I will get an answer.

This seems to be a nice unit - abeit non-prototypical. The layout I have is of the fold-up type and I cannot have a turntable that goes below the layout surface. Hopefully someone will have an answer to my question (before I “smoke” my DCC unit…just kidding). Thanks, in advance, for the help…I don’t know what I would do without the Forum!

2

The Atlas turntable handles DCC automatically. As long as you follow the A/B guidelines, you will have no problems. The tracks line up perfectly every time, and the whole thing is pretty bulletproof. The motor unit is easy to install and also works well, and the Atlas roundhouse kit also mates perfectly with this turntable.

I had the luxury of being able to “get down” with my turntable, so I took an Atlas and “pit-bashed” it into a pit turntable:

http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1162765/ShowPost.aspx

3

Hi “Beas”,

Thanks for getting back to me. I never thought about “pit-bashing” an Atlas turntable…what a great idea! Should the time ever come that I can leave my layout down, I just might follow suit and “pit-bash” my unit. I don’t know why Atlas and Walthers don’t include instructions for the “DCC set” in the hobby. Again, thanks and keep 'em rolling!

4

Who says it’s non-prototypical:

5

Just when you reach an age when you think you know everything…you are shown that you don’t! Thanks for sharing that with me. Having the turntable pit covered does make sense in snow country. We have a friend in Oneonta, NY that was an engineer on the D&H (lost his job when the diesels came in). He mentioned his early days on the road; and one of the worst jobs was shoveling out the turntable pit in the Oneonta yards. Oneonta gets a lot of snow so this odorous task was performed fairly often each winter. Covering the pit just seems to make sense in these weather conditions.