It’s been a while since I was actively involved in model railroading but I decided to get back into it. I looked around online and settled on a trackplan and ordered the necessary track. There is no local hobby shop, by the way. Anyway, the track arrived and I began putting it together, dryfitting things as it were without fastening it down to make sure everything worked OK before the final commitment.
Everything worked OK until I put in the last turnout, all are Atlas snap track Mark 3 code 83 #4. I was running my loco over everything to make sure it would negotiate the turnouts fine, but it stalled out on the last one. Checking things out with a multimeter revealed there was a break in electrical continuity paast the points. It seems to me, from what visual inspection I could do, that there is a small metal plate below the rail here; the moveable points are riveted to them and there appears to be an extension to under the continuous outer rail to conduct to both the point as well as the fixed rail continuation of the point. Apparently this plate is not making good contact with the rail: if I push down on it there is electrical continuity but otherwise no.
I considered the possibility of soldering the rail to this plate, but frankly my soldering skills are not up to doing this without the great possibility of messing things up, like melting the ties. So I have come up withh two other possible solutions. One is to take small piece of aluminum, like from a pie plate, and stick it between the track and plate. But I am not sure this is readily doable. The other idea is touse wiree soldered to rail joiners (something that I can pull off) to bridge over the electrical gap. But before II go to the trouble of all this, would that work or is there a better idea?
I would not attempt sticking aluminum foil under the rails. This will cause an electrlytic reaction between the two types of metal and result in lost continuity. If you purchased the turnout new, my advice would be to remove it and send it back. Frustrating as it may be to not be up and running right away, if you paid for a brand-new tunout, it should work correctly out of the box. This also may save you a lot of headache down the line. Sorry I can’t be of more help.
You can never have too many feeders. And, you can’t depend on rail and rail joiners to power your layout. A solid bus-and-feeder arrangement is the only way to go.
When I’ve got a string of turnouts, I try to either put feeders on each of them or at least solder the rails together. I also use feeders soldered to the underside of rail joiners, and I have the burned fingertips to prove it. Seriously, this works well for me, but the key is to use a lot of feeders so that things still work.
The OP may not know it, but Paul is an Atlas guy. If you can spare the time, please send it back for a replacement. The turnout seems to be defective, and letting them look at it will let them see the problem and make process improvements so that their products will be better in the future.
I have been using Atlas turnouts for about twenty years now (HO and N scale), and easily 75% of them have developed this same problem. In MANY cases, there is an adjacent rail in the turnout that has power. I make little “springs” out of stiff, “springy” wire, and insert them between the powered rail and the dead rail. This has worked pretty well in most cases, without having to solder, or pull-up the turnout. Also, if you have any trashcan-bound VHS tapes laying around, take them apart and you will find several nice things in there! Springs and such!
The spring thing seemed like a good idea, along with the idea one should learn to fix problems. Although I could think at first what would be a good source of properly springy wire, since almost all electrical wire these days is stranded. Then it dawned on my: guitar strings! I am an amateur guitarist, and the plain steel strings are quite spring. I found a piece I had trimmed off when restringing one of my guitars and made a couple of V-shaped pieces which fit between the powered rail and the dead one. The I-shaped profile of the rail holds it in place, although I may tack them down to the ties with some glue. It works. However, I am also going with the idea of multiple feeds, as it would seem to increase reliability.
I had the exact same problem recently on one of my turnouts and what worked for me, was getting something small and pointed, and bending up underneath the metal strip. The tool I used was pointed and slightly bent. If bending that strip hadn’t worked, I probably would have ended up removing and replacing the turnout. It’s worth a shot.
I have had similar problems on a couple of Atlas Custom Line #6 turnouts. The thin copper jumper on the underside of the turnout comes loose and either makes poor contact or no contact.
The solution is to solder the jumper in place. You need to take a hobby knife and make the plastic opening a little bigger and then solder the jumper. You need to use a soldering iron with a fine point and it helps to tin the spot first where the jumper will make contact.
One other thing that I did after ensuring that the jumper was solidly soldered in place was to apply 2-part epoxy over the soldered jumper. That provided a permanent solution.
I’ve got a bunch of #6 Atlas turnouts - don’t remember which of the two lines they come from, Mark something or Custom line. I’m presently installing them on my basement layout 11 track staging yard. So far I haven’t noticed problems with power but the a few of them seem to have enough resistance that the switch machines, that Atlas makes which clip to the sides of the turnouts, won’t completely throw the points to one side - it’s like there is some resistance or friction somewhere - just enough to make the points not go completely to the side. I may have to try the Peco extended switch machines which have enough power to over come the spring on the Peco turnouts and use them on the stubborn Atlas turnouts to get reliable points operations.
Another “tweak” I’ve made to my Atlas #6 turnouts is to file the points with a small jewelers file to make add a bevel to make them “sharper” - less likely for wheels to pick the points. This is a tip I read in a Model Railroader magazine some years ago to “tune” the Atlas turnouts to make them work better. You can file a slight bevel across the at a 60 degree angle as well.
I agree. Learn how to solder. You will need that skill for Model Railroading. Get a good quality soldering station that has temperature control. Don’t get that crap Radio Shack is selling. Go on-line and find some YouTube videos and practice a lot.