I am very new at creating a layout however after looking at different products Atlas track seems to be my favorite track. My concern is am I able to connect the two together? If so is there any other equipment I may need? Lastly, my train is a legacy control train is there anything other than the legacy start up kit that I need to make it work on the track. (Yes I know I should of started smaller but the legacy trains are so beautiful) Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Troy
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Hi Troy,
An Atlas #6010 is the terminal track to provide power to the rails. The catch is getting an adapter cable to convert the connector on the Lionel PH-180 to two wires to connect to the terminal.
One or two sellers on ebay sell them or you can make your own with a Molex connector and pins and suitable stranded gauge wire, like 14awg.
Parts to make your own :
Pins (sized to the gauge wire you will use)
The center wire is hot, the bottom is common or outside rails.
Then, you would have a constant 18 VAC to the track.
Next, would be the Legacy base and remote set. That connects to the terminal track also using one wire, the Common, to the outside rails.
There are cable ends designed to connect a PH135's or PH180's to a Track Power Controller. Note the white connectors used to adapt these PH 180's to the input to the TPC, lower left silver box in the picture. TPC is either a big off/on switch, or conventional control, for the PH180 power supplies. Output from the TPC connects to the track/tracks.
Atlas also makes track joiners with wires soldered to them, I use this method to power my Atlas track. My Lionel power blocks are plugged into a ZW-C, so it has screw terminals to attach the track wires to.
Forum member Ingeniero No1 posted the method he developed for powering Atlas track. It works great! I use it myself and was really happy to find this before powering my layout. Power to Atlas Track Only extras needed to buy are a few drill bits and some screws. There is also a link for the screws used in the linked post.
This link is from another thread, but lists all the items needed to use this method in one post. In this post there is a link to Ingeniero No1's original layout building thread that also describes this method and contains more tips on using Atlas track. Lots of good info!
I use a TMCC Direct Lockon between my PH180 and AtlasO track. From the lockon, I run wires that I solder to AtlasO connectors. There is no need to drill into the AtlasO rails to connect them to power. The Lockon has over current protection and adds to the scenery.
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