Atlas Switches

[Fred Bear]

Bought the two Atlas switches I needed today, installed them and must say, they are smooth as butter and very uncomplicated to use. No insulating pins, or other problems, no sparking, no shorts and trains just won't seem to derail with them. If they hold up, I'll have to vouch for the quality on these switches. Jake

[mickey4479]

I sure like mine.  There is another thread here that talks about a very small wire for the center rail underneath that can expire.  I had that problem on a couple and just used a heavier gage wire to connect all 3 center rails to my hot.  I just stuck the wire through the small opening in the connection pins and it worked great.  Except for one switch machine fizzling, no problems with those.  I have (4) 0-36 switches for small stub yards, a long high speed switch in my loco yard so I could make a shallow transition into my loco shed, but the rest of the switches are 072s.  Glad they worked out for you.

[luther_stanton]

Glad to hear it Jake!

I agree - the Atlas switches are very smooth and look good.

 I put a couple of Lionel Mainline Dwarf Signals

 

near some of my main line switches.  I drive the signals with Atlas Snap Relays to show red for diverging path and green for straight through.  The Atlas switch with the Dwarf signal makes a really nice combination.

 - Luther

[lionelsoni]

Why does Lionel persist in putting the green light on the bottom?

 

[Fred Bear]

The track sure is smooth, so are the switches. I won't miss the acrobatics I had to go through to get the Lionel switches to work, although being that I shoot a Bear take down wood handle bow made in 1970, make and fish bamboo fly rods, and have a penchant for L.C. Smith shotguns, I'll say I do have a lot of respect for the development that happened with Lionel trains and accessories. You'll never hear me bash any of the stuff Lionel developed. I'm sure if the big guy was around, he'd be intrigued with modern technology, as he was the forerunner, and strove to make the stuff as good as it good be made. With that said, even a 253E O scale with old pendelum E Unit likes the Atlas track & switches! Thanks to all that offer advice & contribute on here. This is truly a unique site for guys like me that need help from those in the know, Jake