After several discussions on Model Railroader, I have settled on a method of soldering a jumper wire from the closure rails to the switch points to assure good contact. Now I just need to do a better job of not melting the ties around the solder points.
I recently detected that the points on some of my Atlas custom line #6 turnouts are not getting power & the DCC signal to the points. When using an un-powered frog, and the points are dead, engines of just the right wheel base will die on the turnout. Since I run only four axial trucks this becomes more of a problem. In the picture you can see that the points are powered through a small eyelet and metal pad that is suppose to touch the closure rails, or through the end of the points touching the stock rail on the through side. Neither of these is reliable. I’m hoping to find a better, more reliable power-signal transfer method.
Just added track and power to the NP mainline into Chehalis, WA. The next step is to start building the swing bridge and gauntlet track across the layout entrance.
