Turnout Springs

[johnd]

I read in other post (HO I think) that the springs in the Bachman turnouts seem to be weak. I notice that with some turnouts electrical contact is lost where the points contact the rails after a train runs for awhile - probably due to vibration. If I reset the turnout (flip the switch) once in awhile I don't have the problem.

Has anyone replaced the spring with a stonger one on N turnouts? With what?

Thanks.

[Railhead]

Hi Johnd,
      I don't know of anyone ever changing out the spring mechanism in a N scale turnout. Some solenoids have a plastic wiper that moves the movable rails inside the switch machine. Before you go and do some kind of mod that might damage your turnout, check for other possibilities of were you might be losing electrical contact. Keep in mind that some turnouts get their power to different portions of the internal rails by the movable rail as it lays up against the fixed rail when fipping the turnout for run thru or diverging. When you clean your track do you ever clean the areas on your turnouts were the moving rails contacts the fixed rails? Take a cotton swab and dip in in rubbing alcohol and carefully clean those areas plus the areas where the wheels of you locos make contact with the rails itself. Sometimes over a period of time the rails oxidize and this creates a insulating effect preventing electrical contact to flow from one rail to the next especial on those style of turnouts that are manfactured in that manner. Now if the turnouts in question don't improve any by the cleaning proceedure,  you may want to take a careful peek inside one of your turnouts and check for electrical contacts that may feed the rails internally. I've never opened one of the newer Bachmann turnout were the track is fasten to a plastic roadbed but I have fixed a few Kato #4, #6 and double crossover turnouts with all those having electrical contacts internally that feed the rails. depending on how the electrical contacts (if any) are done inside the Bachmann turnout, it might be possible to modifiy it to get electricity to flow better inside it.  If your good at tinkering, take a look inside but take notice of were everything is placed inside so if a part should get dis-lodge you can get it back together. See if it can be modded or beefed up in some way to get better electrical contact. On older Atlas turnouts before the series they have now in their code 80 track, they use to go dead on the inner rails near the plastic frog. These could be easily fixed by removing a portion of the plastic ties on the bottom of the turnout at the out side rail and inside rail then soldier a jumper wire from one rail to the next on each side of the turnout. ( left side.....outside rail to inside rail.............Right side..... outside rail to inside rail). This method may not work with a metal frog especially if any of the fix rails make any kind of pyshical contact with it (some Peco turnouts are made this way) but may work if their is a gap or plastic insulator between the rails and the frog itself. I hope that I haven't gone overboard and gave you to much info but trying to get in a position for a better fix on your turnouts.
                                           Railhead

[johnd]

Thanks Railhead. I am new at this but I am finding that if you do some work on the Bachmann turnouts ( or is that switch - another thread  ) you can get them to work. The spring seems to be OK. The mechanism that operates which direction you throw the turnout has to be adjusted so that the tension on the spring is about the same in either direction. Also filing points , railguards and any other rough spot you can find helps a lot.