Is my brain turning to gorgonzola cheese?

a> Years ago, I used Peco turnouts, where I simply isolated the entire a> turnout from the rest of the track and wired it in separately. a> Everything worked fine! No complications! a> a> Now, with the Atlas Custom-Line Code 83 HO turnouts there are some a> awfully confusing instructions about wiring that I just don't a> understand and I read it over and over. My poor 78 year old brain! a> a> Can someone give me an explanation in English instead of Atlas' a> gibberish? I don't want to isolate the turnout if it is not necessary! a> a> Thanks very much, for now and in the past where I relied on you folks, a> perhaps too much!

Simple rule-of-thumb:

Always power turnouts from the points end and isolate *at least* the inner pair of rails (outbound from the frog). To be totally safe and if you want sensible block occupancy detection, isolate *all four* of the frog side rails and run separate feed wires to those rails. The only other issues relate to how the frog is wired (or not wired or is plastic). If the frog is isolated and metal, you need to wire it to a relay the operates in parallel to the switch motor (eg follows the points) -- there are a set of contacts available on the Tortoise switch machines OR you can use an 'Atlas Relay', wired in parallel with your snap-action (twin coil) switch machine (the Atlas Relays are just twin coil switch machine working a single-pole, double-throw switch.

a> a> Mike a> Picture Rocks, AZ a> a>

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I can't answer specific to the atlas switches - I use PECO myself. I always use an electrified frog, rather than an insulated one. PECO calls it electro-frog. I provide power to the point end, via the track. I let the turnout handle power to the two switched tracks. I then add a couple inches of track to the switches, that receive their power from conducting joiners. After that additional distance I put in my insulated rail joiners and power feeds to the continuing track. In n-scale, the additional couple inches translates to a full engine length.

Carolyn

Basically, there are two types of turnouts. The ones that route the power to all of the tracks so that a loco can run even if the turnout is set against it. The other is the solid wired frog where the frog power gets switched from one side to the other when the turnout is switched. These ones only allow one direction to be powered at a time and when a loco enters the turnout section, it will stop, usually shorting out the power. The first type doesn't need any special wiring to use but it does power the siding all the time. The second type needs a pair of insulating joiners otherwise any power applied to the frog end of the turnout will short when the turnout is thrown against it. It is nice tho when you are going to a stub track as the power goes off to the stub when the turnout is aligned against the stub track - you just don't put an insulating joiner to that stub track. It is also very desirous to povide a set of contacts on the switch machine to power the frog and it's diverging rails to insure good providing of track power. I build my turnouts by hand and provide a pair of insulating joiners at the two ends of the frog so that I don't get the shorts that can happen when the turnout is thrown one way or the other. Hope this makes simple sense to you.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?