New to the hobby. Can the Atlas selector and controller be used with 2 rail wiring and if so how are they wired.
The Atlas selector and controller are meant for 2 rail trains, but using the common rail method of wiring blocks. They come with good instructions on how to use. At one time Atlas published a good wiring book tailored (of course) to their products and it includes schematics for both. Mine is from 1958 and I have not seen what they offer now.
The Selector is basically for wiring 4 blocks, single pole/double throw (SPDT) so the switch routes one wire of the two from the block either to Cab A or CabB, with a "center off." The more blocks you have the more Selectors you line up, again with common rail for the other rail.
The Controller is more for reverse loops and perhaps turntables and wyes and trying to describe the double pole/double throw (DPDT) wiring for common rail is beyond my prose abilities. It is all explained nicely in Andy Sperandeo's book on wiring, which Kalmbach has allowed to go out of print (for those doing DC wiring their new book from Larry Puckett is frankly no substitute for the Sperandeo book, which in turn is dated and not useful anymore for DCC discussions).
Fortunately Google books has a tidbit of the Sperandeo book online and it shows the Atlas products and how to wire them.
https://books.google.com/books?id=bkAudj8nELgC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=atlas+controller+selector&source=bl&ots=AI71jBqHXK&sig=u6nNPJ5Ma0t8kIo-cfLohT56rU8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-2ImCoM3LAhVIPCYKHVIiAx0Q6AEIbTAG#v=onepage&q=atlas%20controller%20selector&f=false
Dave Nelson
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
The selector is hooked up to power pack A on the upper left. A second power pack B can be hooked up to the lower left.
Use insulated rail joiners to create electrically isolated blocks on your track. I usually create a new block from each fork in the road by using the insulated rail joiners on both tracks after each turnout. You will find the more blocks the better. You can connect together any number of selectors.
Connect a wire from each selector switch to the south rail of the block of track you wish it to control. Connect all of the wires which attach to the north rail together. Connect them to the other wire from power pack A and optional power pack B.
Flip up the switches for any track block you wish to use with power pack A. Flip down the switches you want to use for power pack B (This is great for two players). Leave in the center Off position any tracks which you don’t want to use. This is how you park trains on sidings and spurs.
I hope this helps.
J………
Oh, and welcome to the Forum!
Atlas has a diagram shown for the Controller that also shows attached Selector(s) so you can see how the two might be wired. The example shows a reversing loop and selectors for the other blocks. When a train has entered the reverse loop, one throws a switch on the Controller that reverses the polarity on the non-reversing blocks (and prevents a short when the train's first wheel exits the loop). The the train in the loop can exit said loop and keep going without reversing power pack polarity. But other locos on the non-reversing loop blocks get reversed. (The handling of this polarity issue for track and locos is handled quite differently with DCC, often by including circuit boards that automatically manage track polarity).
http://www.atlasrr.com/pdf/Item220Instructions.pdf
You may want to get the Atlas wiring book:
http://www.amazon.com/Horizon-Hobby-Complete-Atlas-Wiring/dp/B0006KSLE6
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Here you go.
Jim
Soo Line fan Here you go.
Nice picture. I recommend more than one feeder wire for the common rail. I would use one for every block. And if the blocks are more than 9 feet long then additional feeder wires should be used for the best electrical pickup.
j.....
Being a visual person, ths picture untangles much of my confusion with wiring selectors. Thanks for sending this along! Are the three switches DPDT, SPDT, or something else?
SPDT
Mike
Great discussinon on DC wiring, as many of us are not DCC users. I have just finished wiring my newly expanded layout.
A good point about having as many blocks as possible. My small 20' long around-the-walls switching layout has 10 blocks with two throttles. The toggles are on the track diagram on the central control panel (I wish I could show a picture of the panel, but it is still on my phone and I still need to upload it into Photobucket, etc.).
I also have indicator lights, using 3mm LED's that show which throttle is selected, as I used DPDT mini switches. The lights are on a separate circuit, using a 5 volt AC to DC wall wort transformer and 150 ohm resistors for the lights on each toggle. I figured that with switches this small it would be hard to see which position the toggle is in. it was a ton of soldering, but it looks good and functions well.
Thanks to all for the input, a big help