Staging Track

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I am working on a new layout and I am getting ready to work on the hidden staging track. I am using Atlas code 100 flextrack. However, I am somewhat stumped on what brand of turnouts to use. I have thought about using the Atlas code 100 Mark IV turnouts, but I have a couple of questions:

  1. The frog looks like plastic, is it actually blackened metal?

  2. I have steam-era articulated locomotives. Anyone know how well they would work on the Atlas Mark IV turnouts?

Any Help Appreciated!

Thanks,

Dan

2

Those should be metal frogs. They are not powered, but you can power them like any other metal frog.

3

Particularly if you’re making up a single ended yard, I would use PECO code 100 electrofrog with large radius, medium radius could work with articuated, they do with mine, but depends on how you use them. These turnouts are power routing and so you can just park your loco, throw the points and then there is no power which I like for storage. Some people may have problems with PECO, but I haven’t had as much trouble with them as with others–all of the brands can use some fine tuning to get them to work just right. And remember to make sure your wheels are in gauge to avoid shorts.

Atlas are not power routing, power is on all the time for diverging and thru routes. If you use Atlas, your articulated steam will have better performance with a #6 or #8. Either would be fine.

Richard

4

The current Atlas Mark IV turnouts have a ‘blackened’ metal frog - You can use a fine mill file to remove the blackening material. As far as your steam engines, I would use the #6 or #8 turnouts with large articulated steam. The #4(actually a #4.5) is too tight for reliable operation of large wheelbase locomotives.

Jim

5

Is the hidden staging yard easily accessible, or is it “hidden” in a way that’s awkward to get to?

I would not depend on turnouts for power-routing. Instead, I’d go with the usual - plenty of feeders, particularly if your staging tracks are long. I would, however, insulate one rail at each end and use a kill switch for each track so that you can manually control which tracks have power.

6

I plan to use a medium 3 way x 4 for staging and all PECO Code 100 track and Code 100 turnouts for staging. I also plan to put re-railers at the turnout ends to make sure all is true coming out.