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If you are using Walthers or some other type of turnout with non-insulated frogs, it's possible you could have created a short if you connected a feeder wire to the diverging end of a turnout. Those turnouts are designed so that the diverging ends must be insulated from a power source. The can only receive power from the point end of of the turnout. I just went through this on my layout. I had just scenicked and wired my branchline junction and suddenly discovered I had a short circuit and couldn't
I FOUND IT!!! I had recently wired the junction to my branchline and had inadvertently connected a feeder wire to the diverging end of a Walthers turnout. These can only receive power from the point end. The reason I did not suspect that immediately is because I had wired it about a week before and the layout continued to operate reliably. I'm guessing it had something to do with the turnout allignment. I'm not 100% certain but as near as I can figure, the short is only created if the turnout
I believe all Atlas turnouts have insulated frogs although I believe they can be wired to power the frog in which case you could have the same problems as turnouts with non-insulated frogs. If it is not that then you might have a short in your wiring. If you have multiple power districts, I would start by shutting down each district until you locate the one with problem, then one by one, remove the feeder wires until you locate the problem area. That is how I discovered my problem which you can read
I could be wrong but I don't think it matters whether you use a manual or powered switch machine. There is no electrical connection between the switch machine and the track. Short locos can stall on insulated frogs because there is not electrical pick up there and the loco isn't getting a good connection with the wheels that remain on the powered portion of the turnout. That is why many modelers stay away from Atlas turnouts or choose to power the frogs but that introduces electrical issues
I haven't built one of their skyscrapers but I have purchased two of their smaller structures. Since my city scene will be the last section I tackle, these have remained in the box but I have opened them up to look at them. The overhead concourse has me very curious. The walls seem to be constructed of several layers of what seems to be either a clear flexible plastic or acrylic material which I am guessing will be laminated to the window glass sheet after being painted. I haven't look at
I give up. I can't get these turnouts to maintain good electrical contact. I have a pair of Walthers #8 RH turnouts which form a crossover on my doubletrack mainline. These were among the very first turnouts I installed on the mainline and I selected these because I wanted #8s and Atlas had not yet come out with their #8s. I didn't have a lot of problems with them early on but up to now, I hadn't used the crossover very often because I had mainly been just running trains and hadn't
[quote user="Texas Zepher"] [quote user="jecorbett"]While these were among the first turnouts installed, they are the last to get ballasted. I recently ballasted just the one turnout of the crossover and when I began to test the operation, that's when the trouble began.[/quote]Yup, balast is a turnouts worst enemy. Our club no longer ballasts turnouts around the points area. No one seems to notice. [quote]These turnouts are designed to route power only to the track that the
[quote user="dehusman"] Since nobody has addressed the real problem so far, I'll suggest you add some sort of electrical contacts to the throw mechanism. If you are using a tortise switch machine it has electrical contacts on it otherwise hook up a mircoswitch or other electrical switch to the throw linkage. Then put feeders to the stock rails and to the closure/points/frog rails. The problem isn't ballast, its electrical routing and the Walthers switch uses a poor electrical routing
[quote user="modelmaker51"] JECORBET said: For all my Walthers turnouts, I've used Peco switch machines. These have a good hard snapping motion and as I said, visually, it appears the points are contacting the fixed rail but for whatever reason, an electrical connection is not consistently being made. The Peco switch machines are designed for Peco turnouts which have a built-in spring to hold the point rails againts the stock rails. They aren't designed for turnouts without that
[quote user="fwright"] [quote user="jecorbett"] At this point, I'm willing to try just about anything but I'm trying to understand exactly what you are suggesting. Is it possible with a single switch to both change the routing of the turnout and the polarity of the frog rails. If I hard wire the frog rails, it seems to me the polarity must be changed simultaneously with the switching the point rails or else a short will result. Exactly how should this be done? [/quote