Atlas turnout - loco stalling


R

Rocky

New Member
I am new to the hobby and this is my first layout.
My problem is that my locomotives are stalling about 1/2 way through my
#6 Atlas turnouts at speeds less than 50%.
I tried the nail polish on the frog trick but that must not be the problem.
I guess the next logical steps should be invest in a NMRA guage,check for high spots on the frogs and?
I've only been on this site for 2 days and have learned alot through this
forum.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Rocky
 
I bought the NMRA gage and everything seems to be fine.
There are no high spots on the frog.
It seems to stall halfway across the frog at 50% speed setting.
It will hesitate and then keep going if I turn up the speed to 55%.
Any ideas?
 
If your loco is moving slow enough that it doesn't have enough forward momentum to carry it across the dead spots, it will stall. The frogs do not have ANY electrical power going to them, and the pivot rails - even though they're supposed to be powered - sometimes have a spotty electrical connection.

Try this experiment: Run your loco slowly thru the turnout and note the exact positions of the wheels on both sides of each truck. If one set of wheels is on the frog and another on one of the pivot rails, that could be the source of your problem. My approach to this issue was to solder thin feeder wires to the underside of each pivot rail.
 
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Ken,
Thanks for your reply.These are insulated frogs. The middle set of wheels
are directly over the frog when it stops.I'm not quite following your solution,
should I solder the wire from the rail to the pivot rail but leave enough slack for it to move freely?
Can I use a voltmeter to check the pivot rail voltage to see if it is dropping out?
Thanks, Rocky
 
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Rocky,

That is corrrect - a thin wire connecting the main rail on each side to its corresponding pivot (or 'point') rail. You'll need something to hold the pivot rail firmly in the desired position so the wire doesn't press it in one direction or the other - either a ground-throw lever or a switch machine.

I never bothered using any voltmeters on mine, I already knew that a soldered connection provided infinitely better contact than a rivet trying to press two pieces of nickel-silver rail together.
 
Problem with Atlas switches.

Hi Rocky: I had the same problem, especially after ballasting and painting ties and rail. I finally found the problem with the rivets. I cured the problem by drilling a small (.033) hole in each point rail, near the rivet and soldering a small feeder wire to the point rail. Then I drilled a 1/8 inch hole next to the rail through the road bed for the wire. The wire should have a little wiggle room. It doesn't take much, the rail doesn't move very much at that point. DJ
 
Atlas switches

Hello Harold: You're solution to the problem is very interesting. I'm sure there are many ways to fix it . The main thing is to power the point rails. DJ
P1010292-1.png
 
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Also make sure the problem isn't the engines shorting out the turnouts. That's a problem I'm working out now with help of others here. The symptoms can be confused with each other.
 
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