hello everyone,
I recently bought a box of N gage track at a yard sale to extend my layout. The Atlas switches that came in the box have the selinoid on teh side but are not wired. Can someone tell me how to wire these for remote operation?
Thanks,
Dan
The "solenoid" on the side is what's called a twin coil switch machine, which can throw the switch electrically. Wiring is pretty simple, the center terminal is the common, and applying power across either of the outer terminals and the center will throw the switch one direction or the other. Atlas makes a special control for them, or you can simply wire in two momentary contact push buttons, one that will throw either direction. A better explanation:
http://www.nmra.org/beginner/to_control.html
The NMRA Beginner Pages are a good source for basic info.
The Atlas powered remote switches come with a three wire pigtail. They are too short to reach anywhere and probably will have to be extended. The Black wire is the common wire, the Green and Red throw the switch Normal or Reverse and connect to pushbuttons or an Atlas controller. If the switches do not have any wire and are manual throws you will have to replace them with Atlas powered switch machines or another type of your choice.