Hi all, I am building a small switching layout. I have gone the cheaper route by using Atlas code 80 #4 Custom-Line manual turnouts. While mocking up the trackplan last night, I put several switches together. I tested them using my Bachmann 44-Tonner and a 40" boxcar with NO POWER. I just pushed them along by hand... The 44-Tonner seemed to "catch" a little on the frogs (being a newbie I think they are the frogs... the plastic guide rail-things). With the slow speeds I need to run, I don't want to have the engine stalling or getting caught up on the switches. The whole layout would be pointless since it is, after all, a switching layout..... Question is: What can I do to improve performance of these turnouts? Is there filing, or adjustments I can make to frogs, track or loco? One final note, I don't have the finances to start anew by scrapping the Atlas turnouts, so as good-intentioned and intelligent as that advice may be, I won't go that route. Thanks alot!
... one additional piece if info. I am going to use Caboose Industries Manual ground throws too... Is there anything I need to worry about with those? thx
Get you an N scale one of these at your LHS: NMRA Gauge Check your turnouts and the wheels on your locomotive.
Mark, my first advice here is never file or alter any part of your turnouts until you have completely ruled out all other sources of problems. Personally, I have never had a defective Peco turnout. Especially suspicious is that your loco catches but not the boxcar! What I would do is get a NMRA standards gauge and use it to check all the parts of your turnout as well as your loco wheels. Also try running a car in all directions through the turnout. If you see any hitches slow down until you can see exactly where the hitch is. Very occasionally a turnout will be laid with such stress on it that it distorts a little. But really, the problem is almost always your rolling stock. Also make sure there is no ballast or little pieces of junk in the turnout that are getting in the way. Junk is especially prone to getting stuck in the frog as well as between the stock rail and guard rail (the short plastic rails).
If I remember correctly, the Atlas Custom-line switches include a tab for feeding power to the frog. If so, you'll definitely want to do this for a switching layout that uses a relatively tiny loco, or else you'll risk stalling at the frog at switching speeds. That means in turn that you'll probably want to use the Caboose Industries ground throws that have electrical contacts, and use them to feed power to the frog. John C.
Listen to Chaya and the others. First- make sure there are no ambient pieces of ballast or anything else on or near the rails, frogs, points, etc. at the offending switches. If it happens at every turnout, I would take a careful look at the wheels on your engine to make sure they are in gauge. You wouldn't believe how many New In Box engines are not.
Thanks for the advice all. I managed to power up and run through 5 switches.... The 44-Tonner looked like a downhill skier! Anyway, after giving everything a good clean I ran at switching speeds with no problem. Stay tuned for some photos once I figure out the album feature...
Mark's results are not atypical. The advice he was given about "bending" switches is very appropriate, as I bent a few early in my N-scale career by installing them too tightly or forcing them to fit. They also show that many locos don't react well to being used as push-toys, something else I myself had to learn a few years back. I think we insult the N-scale engineers in these little engines!:tb-biggrin:
I have 'mostly' Atlas C80 switches in my yards and industrial area. Some are 30 years old. I've trimmed the points of the frogs back to a sharper point with an Xacto blade, as I run almost entirely MT wheels and the back-to-back wheel gauge is proper; the switches are wide, and the flange will hit on the frog point if it is not cut back just a hair. Particularly noticeable on backing cars in the yard. The alternative (putting in a .010 filler strip in the flangeway) is also OK, but I had a lot of trouble getting thin material to stay glued in there. Every time I'd clean track it would pop back out. That's a standard approach, I'm the renegade here by trimming the frog points, I'll admit it. But the big modification on Atlas C80's that you'll get to someday (and its a whole lot easier if you do it before everything is spiked and ballasted down) is soldering in tiny flexible jumper wires to feed the moving (point) rails back to the nomoving (stock) rails back toward the frog point. That prevents stalling on the point rails. I've done that on every Atlas switch I own. You may not see this problem for YEARS, but if you are planning on painting or ballasting track, that glue/paint can get in that rivit/pivot, and then you have a problem. A jumper already there prevents it. It requires soldering skills, and a certain degree of courage, but at this point just be aware there is a 'fix' if necessary. Now the Caboose Industries throws with the spring in them help a lot - they really 'push' the point rails into the stock rails for better connection. I use them. Here's a shot of a rugged veteran C80 in my yard with the jumper wires and the trimmed frog point. One of my 30-year specials. I throw these with an under-the-table Rix-type switch machine. I also sharpen the points on the inside edge with a tiny needle file a bit, that depends on whether it is an older switch that doesn't have the mild 'pocket' for the points to fit into, and just how good that feels rolling a car through it. If it is picking the points and derailing even when thrown hard over to the stock rail, that's the fix for that. The advice you'll see here on not trimming back or tinkering with switches IS appropriate; you only make these rather invasive mod's when everything else hasn't worked first. But be assured that you really can make an Atlas switch absolutely bulletproof.
There's an old expression I try to remember when tempted to buy something cheaper. It's, "buy cheap and you get cheap." That being said I must admit that I am not as familiar with the newer Atlas turnouts as I was with the older [pre 2000] ones. I prefer to use Peco Code 55 electrofrog turnouts for several reasons. First, the powered frog helps with short wheelbase locomotives or those with minimal current pickup. Second, the spring loaded points do not reguire any separate ground throw. Third, these are the fine scale line meaning better adherance to standards and tolerances than the Peco code 80. I would stay away from the Peco Code 80 as these were made to European tolerances which are a bit more sloppy than what we in the States are acustomed to. Also, Peco makes a curved turnout which really helps in confined areas.
