Has anyone had the same problem as I had this weekend ?. I was finally ready to connect 2 modules, one with a coal mine and one with a small yard. Of course I didn't take the time to check the turnouts for short circuits when I build the yard, didn't think I had to since all the turnouts were new out of the box. Big surprise, nothing worked. A test with the buzzer showed a short circuit. Damn !, all the turnouts and tracks were soldered together, so now I was thinking for a while how to find the guilty one. I don't have a dremel tool, so I couldn't cut tracks very easily (think I have to by one now), so I was trying to see if I could get any clue by setting my powerpack to max output, but since it's and old powerpack and only has a very limited output, I couldn't find anything. (I was hoping that I could measure a few millivolts close to the powerpack and the trace out from there). Well, I had to do it the hard way. I have a 25Amp power supply, so I connected it to the tracks, and turned it on. I then simply touched the tracks to se where it was hot and where it wasn't. Lucky for me, the problem was at the first turnout in the yard ladder, so it was the first one that send smoke signals. How would other trace down a shorted turnout frog is they don't have a cutting tool, and all the turnouts are soldered together ? Is this a common problem with Atlas turnouts ? Lesson learned. Always check turnouts with the buzzer before installing them. Jesper
I seem to remember an insulated frog will short out a live frog when the turnouts are set a certain way. Was that the odd ball and all others were alike? Or was it a factory flaw in quality control at Atlas?
It's the only one out of 20 or so turnouts. They are all isolated frog turnouts. So from now on I'll just have to use the buzzer on each of them before installation. Jesper
This is one reason why I never solder the rail joiners at the turnouts. I solder everywhere else. I also glue my track down but I do not put glue under the turnouts. I let them float. The only purpose for this is to be able to remove the turnout later by sliding back the rail joiners and just lifting the turnout out.
Had that happen with a Peco turnout on my module earlier this year. <-This was the face that my fellow Ntrak club members were wearing when one whole line of the layout was shorted and it took us an hour to find the problem. <- This was the face that I was wearing when we found the problem on MY module.
Atlas turnouts are not power routing like peco which means you'll need to pay attention to proper placement of rail gaps (you'll need to do this no mater who's brand you use). Ohh Let's just say you should pay a little more attention to placement of rail gaps in the future.
