Atlas Turnouts Question

I am not sure about the voltage drop, could be a bad jumper on the switch or a bad connector. the common wire should connect to both outer rails of your track, you isolate the 2 shorter outer rails on the turnouts with an insulator or cut a gap for the non-derailing feature of the switch motor to work.  14ga wire is over kill, 16 would work fine and a lot easier to work with

Atlas switches have been know to have poor internal connections. The correction has been to add three center rail drops. 

Note this poor jumper connection.  The screw attaches the terminal connection through the piece of plastic to the rail below.  Pictured out of the box.

I'm star pattern wiring and have used the OGR 14AWG wire for all power drops. Assuming I want to add another common drop (so both outer rails have a common drop) in each track block with a turnout, is it okay to splice into the existing common power drop in that track block?  If so, must I use 14 AWG or is it ok to use 16 AWG for that third wire?  Any suggestions on how to splice would also be appreciated. Never did this so worst case, I'm sure YouTube has some vids. Thanks. Peter

Do I need (literally) to do this at every single power drop or is it ok to do only in track blocks with turnouts?  I'm not an electrical guy so don't know if putting jumpers in some but not all track blocks will cause some sort of electrical problem. But if not, I really don't want to, as it would require ripping up my entire first main line and then the part of the second I've laid. Thanks again.  

Atlas track is known for poor connections at the rail joiners, so the more jumpers the better. I would put one every 20' or so. it goes more by joints than feet, so if you are using long straights (30"or so) then fewer jumpers. 

Don't rely on the internal "through wiring" of the Atlas turnouts. The wire is small and can come loose. Best to put feed drops on all three free ends of the turnout to ensure consistent power.

A different solution that assures power to middle section.

I live by the "drops on all three rails" rule and actually use 18 ga stranded as I found 14 and even 16 too big and difficult to work with. I have one section with four switches in series that is pretty much trouble free.

Also, I acquired a couple of earlier model switches without the jumper wires underneath or with just the very thin copper you can barely see in CTRs post. If you pop off a section that these wire connect to -- frog for example -- you'll find that they barely make contact at the bottom. CTR's approach is best. Alternatively I ran a hot wire directly to the center Y and a common to the frog and have had no issues.

S

ive got drops every 4-6 joints[use 40" straights ] and both sides of switches.about 30 switches and 1200' of track ,all atlas O , never have had any problems. ross makes a good switch,not any better imo.-jim