Another newbie Atlas turnout ?


CBCNSfan said:
The Devils advocate!
Well Well, all my turnouts are Atlas (mostly Customline #6) and a few #4's.
Derailments, yes a few picked points but the problem most always turned out to be wheels out of gauge. But to be honest there is one #6 that is a piece of crap, had to take it out as the points would never close properly when activated with a switch machine. Sitting on a table by it self, yep it would work ever time but add a piece of track in front of the points yup fail every time. Some day when I have nothing to do, and if I'm still alive I'll find out what's wrong with it. :D

Cheers
Willis
Click to expand...

I spent more time on this problem yesterday and found that 1/2 of my old cars have couplers that have to much spring force to latch them. So when the the car is coupled to another one, it tends to turn the truck. Then when it enters the switch it wants to turn instead of going straight. I guess I will go buy a couple new cars and go from there.
 
Duke,

Before you destroy the switch. Get an NMRA gauge and check the turnout AND the wheels on your 15-20 year old cars. The Atlas switches do indeed have a stamped point assembly, and the 'point' is rather blunt. Our club has over 200 of these(both new and used)and we have only replaced a couple in the past three years. I have 43 of them on my home layout(and replaced one after I destroyed it). I will agree that Peco or Walthers-Shinohara turnouts are better, but you will 'pay' a lot more for them. From you posted picture, I really can see nothing 'wrong' with that switch. The points appear to be seated firmly against the stock rail. Do you have a switch machine or ground throw attached to the throw bar?

Jim
 
jrbernier said:
Duke,

Before you destroy the switch. Get an NMRA gauge and check the turnout AND the wheels on your 15-20 year old cars. The Atlas switches do indeed have a stamped point assembly, and the 'point' is rather blunt. Our club has over 200 of these(both new and used)and we have only replaced a couple in the past three years. I have 43 of them on my home layout(and replaced one after I destroyed it). I will agree that Peco or Walthers-Shinohara turnouts are better, but you will 'pay' a lot more for them. From you posted picture, I really can see nothing 'wrong' with that switch. The points appear to be seated firmly against the stock rail. Do you have a switch machine or ground throw attached to the throw bar?

Jim
Click to expand...

I have tweaked all the Atlas switches as instructed, and now they work well. I also did some work on the couplers and that helped a lot too. Today I purchashed 2 of the Silver Series Bachman cars......wow are they nice! I had NO problems with them. I can see that the design with the coupler attached to the trucks, like my old ones, tend to "steer" the truck in the direction of the spring load as it goes through the switch. Can I change the couplers on the old cars or should I just replace them? Thanks to all for the help, this Forum has been great in getting me going in the right direction.
 
To update old rolling stock, the best would be to replace trucks and put the couplers on the body.

I thought about doing it with my old rolling stock, but I decided that it wasn't worth the cost to upgrade something that didn't fit in my layout or time frame.
 
I have 80 atlas #6 and if I did it again I would use peco. I have 2 pecos on the layout and trains can run thru them backwards, full speed, upside down! etc... and then dont derail do that thru the atlas and its a 50% chance the train will make it. The atlas is a good price for what you get but the tweaking of them is becoming a PITA.

truck mounted couplers can be an problem as they try to turn the car in the wrond direction when backing and also like to be pulled to the inside rails of curves.
 
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