Atlas Code 55 deliveries

[Chris333]

And be careful bending the points into a correct shape:


And I was just working with a piece of their flextrack. The side with the loose rail is so loose I can rock it side to side about 15 degrees each way.

[peteski]

The problem is that the points, frogs and guardrails are not cast from nickel silver. Nickel silver would easily withstand slight bending. The appear to be some sort of white metal (Zamac?) which is then plated to make it appear similar in appearance to the nickel silver. There was a thread on the A-board about these switches and I asked Atlas what metal they used. But we were never given an answer.

[kalbert]

Now hold on just a minute... People seem to like to complain that Atlas track isn't available, but they also like to complain that it doesn't live up to their expectations? Is it possible people just like to complain and wouldn't be satisfied with anything?

[Dave Schneider]

Yes, some people are never happy, but please don't put everyone in that category.

Most of us are pretty easy to satisfy. Here is the short list.
1) We would like track components to be available for purchase without mult-year gaps in their availability.
2) We would like the track components to be in gauge with points that don't fall off.

These are both legitimate complaints.

Best wishes, Dave

[jdcolombo]

As for the code 55 turnout issues, they are not ancient history, they are not uncommon, and I can document them.
See below.  This problem exists with very nearly every single #7 turnout I have ever bought, and I have bought groups
of them over the past 4 years, from completely different shops in different states all over the country.  Unless by
incredibly bad luck, they all got all their turnouts at the same time from one bad batch and sent them to me
over a 4 year period, this is not a "rare" problem.   Long steam (like a 4-8-4) cannot make it through these point
rails without riding up and out unless your wheels are deliberately set too narrow on the NMRA gauge, and if you do that,
they will start jumping the frog or picking the open point rail.  I have to carefully file and hand-dress almost every one to
correct this.  Every once in a while, one has come right out of the package with all the rail clearances in gauge, but it is
very rare.

Agree that the gauge on No.7's is a continuing issue.  I seem to have gotten more in-gauge than out, but I've still had to fix about 50% of them in exactly the same area Max points out in his photos.  I don't bend the points; instead, I use a very fine tapered grinding wheel in a dremel or a diamond file to take just a bit of the metal off at the narrow point, either from the stock rail or the points or both - you can see from Max's photos exactly where the problem lies.

I'm also frankly unhappy about the plating issue.  I didn't know about the plating, and I clean my track agressively before each operating session with 1000-grit sandpaper.  Over time, this has worn off the plating on some of the frogs/points.  It hasn't affected operation any, but you can see the slightly "copperish" color underneath.  I had no idea about this until reading about it on this and other forums.

The truth is that building your own turnouts, as Bob Gilmore does, would be preferable.  In my case, I just didn't want to take the time to learn that skill and then take the time to deploy it over the 70+ turnouts I needed for my layout.  In retrospect, that was probably a mistake.  Live and learn.

I'll probably end up doing one more layout at some point in my life, and if I do, I'll either make my own turnouts or hire someone to make them for me (custom turnouts made with Fast Tracks jigs are available out there if you look; they are expensive in comparison to Atlas' offerings, but the operational quality is likely far better and then you get points and frogs made from real nickel-silver rail).  It's ultimately just a matter of investment of either time to make them or money.  I'm at the age where time has become more important to me .

As for Peco - I used Peco in each of my first two layouts, Code 80 on my first and Code 55 on my second.  I still prefer the spring-over-point design that permits you to use the turnout without an external linkage of any kind.  I find this particularly useful in switching areas, where you can "flick the points" to do your switching instead of fumbling with an out-of-scale ground throw or a switch or lever on the fascia.  But I finally switched to Atlas because of the appearance issue.   If Peco would do a US-prototype rail in N scale (like they do in HO), I'd buy it in a heartbeat.  I don't understand why they don't, particularly since they have the widest array of switches and specialty trackwork of any manufacturer (tooling costs, I guess).  I think they'd compete favorably with Atlas, even though they are a bit more expensive, IF they'd fix the appearance issue.  (It would also be cool, I think, if Peco made a code 40 track by doing the same thing they do with their code 55: bury the track further in the ties; such a track profile would be very useful in N scale, and the way Peco does it would make the resulting track still very robust, as well as compatible with existing lo-profile wheelsets.  One can dream . . . )

John C.

[GaryHinshaw]

I have to agree that there is room for (and perhaps even a burning need for) another commercially produced, high-end turnout line in N, especially one that included code 40 options.  They would probably be expensive, but in the era of $30-40 freight cars, there must be a market for $30-40 turnouts.     

[Ian MacMillan]

Now hold on just a minute... People seem to like to complain that Atlas track isn't available, but they also like to complain that it doesn't live up to their expectations? Is it possible people just like to complain and wouldn't be satisfied with anything?

No. This is just a very up front forum.  A complaint is something without merit.

They will need to tweak some things again as this is a new factory and molds for things like the flex track needed completely redone molds.

[C855B]

I have to agree that there is room for (and perhaps even a burning need for) another commercially produced, high-end turnout line in N, especially one that included code 40 options.  They would probably be expensive, but in the era of $30-40 freight cars, there must be a market for $30-40 turnouts.     

I wish Micro Engineering would step up to the plate on this. There is more to life than #6. 

(Didn't they used to do a #8, many moons ago? Maybe the mold broke?)

[robert3985]

I wish Micro Engineering would step up to the plate on this. There is more to life than #6. 

(Didn't they used to do a #8, many moons ago? Maybe the mold broke?)

I was on top of the ME/Railcraft turnout availability when it first started, and let 20+ club members know about them, which was THE major influence in switching over to code 55 on our club modules.  The club bought a pot full of 'em since they were the only show on the road (even with just #6's).  As far as I know, they never offered anything but a #6...ALTHOUGH...they did offer hand-built PCB turnouts for a while in various #'s...and they were pretty bad.  When they got out of it, I happened to hear they were getting rid of some of the materials used to make them, and I was able to buy ALL (about 500 linear feet) of their PCB ties in 1' lengths for about 27 bucks (if I remember properly).  I have used those strips of PCB now for over two decades to make my own turnouts, and I've got enough for another two decades.

Get smart Micro Engineering.  Now is the perfect time to introduce a couple more, well-built, good-looking turnouts...maybe even some in code 40 to go along with your 40 flex.

[Chris333]

I make it a point to bring up my Atlas C55 problems because I'm hopeful that they are listening. There was the great flex track shortage because the mold had broke. After it was re-cut and the track was again available I bought one of those big $250 boxes of it. I found that every single piece had a loose rail. And every piece had spikes that stuck up too high, but only on about 9" of one side. It was a little bit disappointing and I now dig into that same box when I need rail to hand lay turnouts.

Before this I had always used ME flex so I didn't know it was a problem.

I do use their #11 turnouts and ME flex without problems.

The sad thing about all this is the Atlas track is it's still the only REAL option.

[CoalPorter]

HI SHIPSURE!! Why don't you bug Micro-Trains to buy out and revamp Micro Engineering's N Scale track line, since
they don't really do much with it anymore?

[Kisatchie]

HI SHIPSURE!! Why don't you bug Micro-Trains to buy out and revamp Micro Engineering's N Scale track line, since
they don't really do much with it anymore?

I second that!!!


Hmm... then everyone
will start complaining
about Micro-Trains' track...

[Chris333]

MTL was going through the same thing with their Z scale track, it wasn't available for a long time.

[robert3985]

Y'know...making closure points isn't that big a deal.  I had a couple of club members (Utah N-Railers) break their Atlas #7's closure points (as pictured) and it was a pretty easy proposition to just make new ones, and install 'em while the rest of the turnout was in place, using PCB headblocks and throwbar.

They didn't want to do it, so I did it 'cause makin' just the closure points is a helluva lot easier than makin' the whole turnout.  Seems like I did the ME turnout trick and used a partial rail joiner for the hinges, soldered onto the closure rails' heels, then inserting the closure points' heels into the rail joiner, then soldering the tips of the points to the PCB throwbar. 

Worked pretty well and saved several turnouts.

[peteski]

They didn't want to do it, so I did it 'cause makin' just the closure points is a helluva lot easier than makin' the whole turnout.  Seems like I did the ME turnout trick and used a partial rail joiner for the hinges, soldered onto the closure rails' heels, then inserting the closure points' heels into the rail joiner, then soldering the tips of the points to the PCB throwbar. 

That is also the same way Peco hinges their switch points.