Caboose Industries 220S Ground Throws and Atlas Snap Relays

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am considering using Atlas # 6 Custom turnouts for my layout. I want to use the Caboose Industries 220S ground throws. They have the SPDT contacts. I am concerned about the frog; therefore, I wanted to use the Atlas Snap Relay to prevent stalls at the frog. Two questions please;

  1. Does anyone have any experience using the CI 220S with the Atlas snap relay to assist the frog? What has been your experience(s)?
  2. Does anyone know of a wiring diagram by anyone to install the 220S with the Atlas snap relay on the custom turnouts?

I would appreciate any and all help. Happy New Year to everybody!

2

Why do you want to use a both 220S and a Snap Relay? The 220S will provide all the contacts you need to power that Atlas Customline turnout frog. If you power the Snap Relay with the contacts on the 220S, one of two things will happen:

  • The 220S contacts will burnout from the exccessive load of the Snap Relay

  • The Snap Relay will burn out as you need to power it from a ‘momentary’ switch device

The 220S has 3 contacts, one goes to the frog, and the other two go to each of the ‘stock’ rails. I have a friend and he must have over 100 of these and they work great for DCC insulated frogs. The Snap Relay is for use with a powered switch machine that does not have any power routing contacts.

Jim Bernier

3

Thank you so much, Jim. I am grateful for your help. I thought that I would need both the snap relay and the 220S to power the Atlas customline frogs. I was obviously wrong. You also saved me a lot of money, those snap relays are expensive. I will be using DC instead of DCC so I will assume that the 22OS will be all that I need even in DC.

I am grateful for your expertise. I am glad you are here and the time that you took to help me. I thank you very much!

4

The 220S can be a pain to install but they are definitly worth it. Check my post on 12/27 for some tips to make the job easier. - Bill

5

Thanks Bill for your help. I am a “big time” newbie and I feel so dumb sometimes on this bulletin board. But I am learning everyday and enjoying the expertise of some many people and their model railroad expertise. I am so grateful for this bulletin board and people like you who share your wisdom to make the road easier for us, newbies. Thanks so much.

Steven