I had one stick and melt.. I did not know it and I kept smelling this faint sweet smell.. It was only later when I went to through the switch did I realize what happened.
Many of us have had bad experiences with the Atlas pushbuttons. They simply aren't as reliable as I would want them to be. Unfortunately, one of the "failure modes" of the switch is to stick in the closed position, causing power to be constantly applied to the switch machine. Atlas machines aren't designed for constant power, only momentary, and they will overheat and actually melt down after a few minutes. At that point, about the only positive thing you can say is that they're relatively easy to replace.
If you want to use the Atlas buttons, consider a capacitive discharge circuit to drive your twin-coil machines. I Googled up a circuit and built mine for a few dollars in Radio $hack parts. The CD circuit will make your turnouts work better by applying a higher voltage kick when you throw the toggle. After that, though, the CD circuit also protects your turnouts by limiting the current until the switch machine is de-energized and the CD starts recharging.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Or are you talking about the switch that you mount to control board?? Not much in the way of hiding them unless you mount the switches behind some plastic since the switch does look like it is raised to do that but I dont worry about it too much on layout so I can have easy access if a switch fails but when I am all done with my layout I am going too look at better switches and get my control board nicer looking.
Back when I used those, I had all the control buttons ganged together in a row on my control panel, and a hole drilled right above each one to feed the 3-wire cables through. That's about as hidden as you can get with those. Out on the layout, a small hole drilled right next to the switch motor allowed the cable to go under the layout. Clearances are close so it's hard to 100% hide them, but some shrubbery and ground cover can at least somewhat disguise the hole and the switch motor. Don't get any materials or adhesive in any of the moving parts of the switch motor or turnout itself.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
If you are talking about the snap switches, I just drill a hole just under the switch, pull the wires through and if you really want to hide, a little ground foam or grass works decent for the rest that might show through but for the most part I dont even see my wiring.
All, I am using the Atlas auto switches. I am looking for ideas on how to mount the switch/button itself on my layout. The three wires come in at the top of the switch which is kinda what I am worried about hiding. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks