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Hi, I had a similar question a while back ("1000ma AC - how many relays" was close to the subject line.) Anyway, I didn't get, shall we say, 'overloaded' with responses, so I did my own experimentation as follows: 1. I didn't trust the ac accessory outlet on an old power supply I had, so invested in a 1000ma, 18v ac supply from Radio Shack. 2. Experimentation *proved* to me that the current requirement of the snap relays on the turnouts and the snap relay machines (Atlas 200) was such that no more than 2 devices could be snapped reliably at any one time..... One turnout coupled with one Atlas 200 (or another turnout) is the limit. 3. Why is this significant? - Refer to Atlas HO layout #21 ("The waterwings") for an example of a double crossover wherein one switch control box is (supposedly) used to flip all four turnouts at once..... This does not, and as far as I have determined, cannot, be driven successfully as shown due to (2) above..... Which kind of sucks! - Particularly if in addition to the turnout coils themselves you also want to power the frog(s) and/or some indicator lighting as per the instructions with the snap relay..... I investigated some of the circuits referenced in replies to my original post, and wound up exploding a few capacitors before finding the following part at Walthers: "Circuitron Snapper switch machine power supply" - Part # 800-5303. It hasn't arrived yet, but claims to be able to switch between 5 and 10 coils from a 24v supply.... This still seems like an awfully broad specification to me (!) but will hopefully get me out of trouble on this project.... (I need 4 turnouts plus two snap relays to do what I want.) In conclusion, I remain absolutely amazed that this is not a bigger issue - Any time you have a need for two turnouts to be thrown at the same time (see Atlas layouts 22 & 23 for further examples) you better not try and add any further load if you want it to work reliably..... If anyone could correct me on anything here I would love to hear.... Anyone at Atlas know how to make plan HO21 work?..... And finally, while I'm on my "high horse" I took the advice of the masses and used AC to power the turnouts - The first thing the Circuitron (or any other homemade capacitive device) has to do is feed a rectifier to get DC to charge the capacitors..... Hmmmph! Hope this helps, Ian
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