Mostly Atlas Mark 3 # 6"s and some curved Peco Turnouts
Do you know how a train kind of bumps across a Switch? and its noisy also. Not smooth at all? This started bugging me on my last layout so I got a set of trucks and just ran them back and forth on the switch to see where they jumped around and found it was at the Frog. Seems the Frogs have a little dip in them. Don’t know why?
So I bought some 2 part epoxy and with a toothpick dropped a little into the Frog and let it harden. I then filed it smooth while checking it with the truck set and Walla, train goes accross the Turnouts now smooth and silk. I do this to both sides of the Frog.
Has any body else done this and is there an easier way to smooth out of turnouts that someone has found?
Thanks, DON
P.S. The River Rat Juction RR is cooking. got some more cork roadbed ordered. Hope to draw up the track plan soon and put it on here and see what you guys think. maybe make some suggestions.
Good question - everything I’ve found to bounce over my Atlas Code 83’s so far has proven to be out of gauge when checked with an NMRA gauge. Almost always too tight back-to-back (wheels are too close together). Plastic wheels get repalced with metal, but when something like an Athearn loco is the culprit, you can adjust the wheels by pulling them outward. Get them to match the NMRA gauge and they roll smoothly.
Quality control with the Mark 3 Atlas turnouts leaves a lot to be desired. The frog castings are often cast crooked into the plastic ties, and they’re sometimes also too high or low to line up with the adjacent rails. In addition, flangeways on Atlas code 100 turnouts exceed the applicable NMRA specs for width and depth as of the last time I used some in my staging yard.
I haven’t done what you describe, since I only use Atlas turnouts in staging where absolute smoothness isn’t necessary as long as operation is otherwise reliable. I’ve tuned up a number of their turnouts, and haven’t found a faster or better way.
As far as I’m concerned, by the time you really fix up a Mark 3 turnout to operate truly smoothly, you might as well have spent the effort to handlay. I complete frogs by filling the flangeways with solder, then filing to NMRA specs with a piece of hacksaw blade (a similar process to what you’re doing with the epoxy).
I use a small file to sharpen the point ends that lay against the stock rail to get a closer alignment. Then I use my NMRA gauge to check the flangeways and the frog. If out of whack I use an emory board ( what you use to file your finger nails) to file away everything in the way. Works for me just fine. Ain’t it great!!
Archie