while investigating the cause of derailments, it was noticed that cars jumped when reaching they frog and that the frog was noticeably taller than the adjoining rails.
this turnout was installed ~10 years ago in hidden staging
is this a known problem (at that time)? could atlas have sold a bad batch of turnouts? probably a customline turnout
is the only alternative to replace the turnout or can it be repaired (ground down with a dremel tool)?
That was a problem at the time.
If you can reach the turnout with a Dremel, you would be better off just replacing the faulty turnout.
Rich
I had 1 Atlas #6 turnout that was like that, it was up front and easy to get to, so a Dremel fixed it.
It only seem to affect travel in one direction.
Mike.
I had that problem with a Shinohara turnout, I just filed it, worked great.
i ‘tuned’ all the atlas custom line number six switches before i installed them… a few passes with a file took the ‘extra’ height off the frogs , it wasn’t much but there was some …
I heard a clinic on Zoom where the very experienced modeler told about using a circular hone on his track that removed all little protrusions and irregularities that can occur even with the best track and best track laying.
It is a Norton machine knife stone, and you rub the flat botton back and forth on the track.
Here is an image taken from the internet:
Norton Machine Knife Stone (sharpeningsupplies.com)
Dave Nelson
Hi Greg,
When I was with my old train club, one of my tasks was to ‘tune’ all the Atlas turnouts. I would say that about 40% had high frogs so I dressed the turnouts with a file. It didn’t take too much to correct the problem.
However, we discovered another problem with a few of the turnouts where the frogs had popped out of their positions and were sticking up quite high. It was easy to glue them back into place before the turnouts were installed, but if the problem occurred after the turnout was installed (likely from rough handling) it was a much greater challenge.
I used a heavy steel block about 1 1/2" x 3" x 2" to test the turnouts. All I did was slide it down the rails towards the point of the frog. If the frog was out of place in the least, the block would catch on the point.
Cheers!!
Dave
to all, very enlightening, thanks
The porototype uses whats called flange bearing frogs, or jump frogs.
The busiest line gets a nice smooth ride, as the opposing, or less used line has to “jump” over frog.
https://www.trains.com/mrr/beginners/ask-trains/ask-mr-flange-bearing-frogs-explained/
Mike.
Only used in specific situations.
Sheldon
Random occasional problem with a few batches over the years. By one means of another, as suggested, just file them down. Personally I do not use a power tool for this, a small flat mill file works fine.
I like the idea of the circular hone.
Sheldon
Here is a system that may be easier to keep aligned with railheads and has discs down to 6000 grit:
https://www.horl.com/de/en/sharpeners
As an interesting aside: you can clean some of the fine-grit lapping stones with Bon Ami to get the metal scurf out of the pores in the stone as you work…
Hello All,
I’ve experienced a similar situation on Atlas Snap Switches with plastic frogs.
What I did was buy a medium grit sharpening stone and used it to “knock down” the uneven plastic frogs.
The sharpening stone is more abrasive than a “Bright Boy” and less aggressive than a Jeweler’s or another type of file so it doesn’t mar the Nickle-Silver rails while being able to remove the excess plastic.
Hope this helps.
Greg,
I had an Atlas 90o crossing that was especially noisy. After some investigation, I discovered that the plastic insulated area in the middle of the crossing was higher than the track. This caused locomotives to scrape their underbelly each time they passed over the crossing. Once I replaced it with a Shinohara crossing - voila! - no more noise!
I would replace the errant turnout with another one but verify that the new turnout doesn’t suffer from the same issue.
Tom