I have Atlas swithes on my layout and I was wondering about the wiring for them. The website I visited called wiringfordcc.com gave a few suggestions but it is still some what confusing to me (I don't know anything about wiring really). My turnouts are DCC friendly but the website suggested a few simple wiring tips for it. Can anyone help? This is the website:
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_atlas_roco.htm
Welcome to the forum, I am suprised your post has not attracted any comments. You even picked a decent title too. The Electricity subforum isn't as busy as the General forum, so it probably fell to the bottom of the recent post list.
The author of the site is wrong in his comments that all Altlas turnouts are basically the same. Some have plastic frogs and there is no way you can power those. The metal frogs can't be soldered but they can be drilled and tapped for a 1-72 brass screw and the screw can be soldered to feeders.
If you are fond of short wheel base engines or have sound issues while traversing frogs, then you either need to power the frogs or add some sort of stay alive device to your DCC engine.
The premise of his article (which most of us would agree with) is that dependability is improved if electicity has path through wire rather than depending on physical contact of the point to the stock rail or through a rivet between the point and the closure rail. The additional jumpers are fine gauge wire. You don't need anything near the size of Buss wire and besides anything that thick would immobilize the points.
What specifically are you confused about?
edited for pathetic spellin
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Be careful wiring, you don't want to electrocute yourself, make sure the power is off before you start working.
Just a little safety tip.
If they are Atlas Custom Line, then there is nothing to do, just install them. You can power the frog if you need to using switch machine contacts, but I've not needed to do this on two different DCC layouts I built with Atlas track, even small locos like a Bachman 44 tonner handled the unpowered frogs without stalling.
My 'trick' is to run all power through joiners - do not buy the already made up ones, for the same price and an hour at the workbench you can take a pack of ordinary joiners and some wire and make your own, dozens at a time. On a turnout, I put 3 sets - that's a total of 6 feeders, one pair on each leg of the turnpout, and mine were 100% reliable. Effectively every other piece of flex track was soldered, with feeders soldered on as well - so every 6 feet I had a soldered rail joint with feeders, plus at each end there was a pair of joiners with feeders not soldered to the rail. So:
==|unsoldered joint|=======|soldered joint|=======|unsoldered joint|==
I never soldered turnouts in place, just had the wired joiners on all 3 legs.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
BigDaddyWhat specifically are you confused about?
NSCSZ.....You need to answer this question.....along with the type of turnout....Atlas snap-switch...plastic black frog. Atlas customline painted metal frog, which can be powered. A lot more info..read when You get a chance:
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/intro2dcc.htm
ATSF.....In My over 66 yrs. of Model Railroading...I have never heard of anyone being electrocuted by 12volts, and if He can't plug in a transformer to a wall outlet without being electrocuted...He's got a problem.
Take Care!
Frank
Hey thanks for the reply, yes my turnouts are Atlas Custom Line. Why so many feeders on the turnouts?
I too have a Bachman 44 toner and it hasn't stalled at the turnouts. So you are soldering the feeders on the rail or just leaving them as is (just as rail joiners)?
I don't have flex track, mine is Atlas snap track. I have a lot of small track pieces not to mention all the regular length ones; do I need to run a feeder off of every piece of track?
Is it okay to solder rail joints together? I heard that wasn't good for expansion/Contraction?
I gather your layout is already up and running well enough for the 44 tonner. What wins out?
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" vs If it ain't broke don't fix it"
I don't use snap track so I can't say what people do there. I was influenced by people who say every piece of track should have a wire or a solder joint conducting electricity. That's less of a problem with flex track.
I did make a quicky circle of track (DC) for under the Christmas tree and with only 2 feeders, some tracks needed the joiners soldered for reliability. Everything we do on a permanent layout to ballast and paint the track probably doesn't help electrical conductivity.
Whatever you do, don't solder all the rail. If a rebuild is in your future, don't solder the turnouts either.
You will have buckled rail if you solder everything. Someone will blame that on my inadequte temperature and humidity control. I can't argue with that, but as long as I live in Maryland, the power will continue to go out slightly less often than in Baghdad and the humidity will vary between outragous and Monsoon season in AZ
zstripe In My over 66 yrs. of Model Railroading...I have never heard of anyone being electrocuted by 12volts, and if He can't plug in a transformer to a wall outlet without being electrocuted...He's got a problem.
In My over 66 yrs. of Model Railroading...I have never heard of anyone being electrocuted by 12volts, and if He can't plug in a transformer to a wall outlet without being electrocuted...He's got a problem.
Rich
Alton Junction
No issues soldering the rail joiners. It's not the rail that is the problem, it's the underlyign structure. Just don;t solder all the rail joints. That will leave room for any expansion or contraction of the benchwork. Each group of soldered track pieces should have a feeder for the best operation - it's the rail joienrs that get loose and become poor conductors, leading to dead spots with no power.
rrinkerit's the underlyign structure. Just don't solder all the rail joints.
Randy and I agree on this. My comments on soldering turnouts, is to make them more readily removable in the event of remodeling.
When it comes to complex electrical matters, Randy's the guy with the wizard hat and I'm the guy at the end of the bar.
richhotrain zstripe In My over 66 yrs. of Model Railroading...I have never heard of anyone being electrocuted by 12volts, and if He can't plug in a transformer to a wall outlet without being electrocuted...He's got a problem. But, Frank, what about my bathtub layout??? Rich
But, Frank, what about my bathtub layout???
Rich,
Well,,,I guess there is always a first time Eh?
Take Care, Richie!
Frankie
Just use a battery and you can railroad in the tub all you want. Just don't move around too much, trains don't handle scale tsunamis very well.