I have about 14 HO Atlas turnouts in my layout. I bought 6 Atlas code 83 for my interlocking plant. Can the Atlas switches work with DCC? I own a Digitrax DB150. If so, do I wire a Digitrax DS64 or any other 3rd party switch controller to the Atlas switch?
My Atlas turnouts work just fine with DCC, no modifications needed.
Not sure what you mean by wiring "a Digitrax DS64 or any other 3rd party switch controller to the Atlas switch".
You'd wire the stationary decoder (that's what the DS64 is) to some sort of turnout motor (stall motor, solenoid, etc), and that turnout motor would then move the turnout's points.
If you do end up using DS64's (I do, and I highly recommend them), do yourself a favor and use an external power supply instead of powering them from track power.
Absolutely.
The Atlas turnouts are DCC friendly, so to speak.
The frogs are dead, and the point rails pick up the correct polarity.
Rich
Alton Junction
You may use DCC to control Atlas turnouts, or Pecos, or Tortoises, but you don't have to. You may also continue to wire your turnouts to control panels, just like you would with DC.
I thought about doing that, but decided that a convenient schematic with toggle switches was a more intuitive method of control. For me, remembering the address of all those turnouts is a bit too much, and adding enough stationary decoder modules to run them would be quite expensive.
But, that's a personal opinion, and everyone likes to run his or her railroad their own way.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
ABsolutely fine, I'm on my second DCC layout with all Atlas track components. No problems at all. I went to the trouble of attaching a rie for frog power on each one before installing it, then I find even my smallest loco doesn't hesitate at crawl speed. Oh well,. had I NOT run the wires, I'd probbaly have a problem and wish I had put the wires on. I've always had good luck with Atlas track, my 'torture test' is to run a train at arp speed forward and backwards over my track. If it can do this without derailing, then I know it's good.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
For clarification, Atlas snap-switches have plastic, non-conducting frogs. Atlas customline turnouts have metal frogs, which are not powered but which may be wired up to aux connectors on a switch machine or to a "frog juicer."
I agree that remembering switch numbers, especially under the pressure of an imminent collision, is hard. But I like having DCC control of the devices. Is it possible to wire a DPDT toggle into the circuit and thus have both manual and electronic control?