I had one of the points on an Atlas code 55 #5 turnout pop out at the point where it pivots last weekend (the result of forcing the turnout after sloppy ballasting). I was dreading taking this thing out to replace since the area the turnout was in was the recently sceniced yard thoat. I figured that was my only solution. After asking about it here, I was given some excellent, very simple advice on how to fix it. Skibbe suggested a technique that Lashedup has used. This worked so well, it's worth documenting for other's use.
1. I picked up a tube of this at the local hardware store:
http://www.liquidnails.com/products/product.jsp?productId=74 2. Cleaned the area under the point rail.
3. Used a #11 blade to rub the electrical contact area at the pivot point until it was shiny.
4. Put a small dab of the adhesive under the point rail on the tie
next to the pivot point.
5. Put the point rail back in place.
6. Added a little weight to hold the point down until the adhesive dried.
7. Came back 24 hours later and tested the turnout.
It works great mechanically and when tested with my multimeter, has electricity running reliably through it.
Total repair time was under 4 minutes.Thanks for the tip Mike (and Jamie)
Erik
