How much do you trust Atlas C55 curved turnouts?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm slowly working on various plans for my newish basement and one iteration uses an Atlas curved turnout in a critical place (60% of the traffic on the layout, including passenger cars and 89' flatcars will go through the inner diverging route).

Should I abandon that idea?

[mmagliaro]

If you are willing and able to do very careful shimming, filing of the rails, possible outright replacement of the drawbar with one of your own making, and a good bit of very tricky soldering to bypass all the unreliable bronze contact fingers on the underside, I'd rate it 80% reliable.  Not very good for a turnout and certainly not good for one that carries a lot of your operational traffic.

If you do nothing, and just install it, I wouldn't trust it at all.

I have one... exactly one... Atlas c55 curved turnout on my layout.  As you know, I've done a strict regimine of improvements to all of my Atlas c55 turnouts before installing them, which eliminated all their woes (at least in my experience), but not on that curved turnout.  That thing has required a tweak every once in a while with guard rails and gauge correction.  It is simply not stable.   If I were to invest in a FastTracks jig to make a turnout of my own, that curved turnout would be the number one thing on my list to build by hand and replace.

[wm3798]

I had two.  One at the east end of Cumberland Station, and one at the west end of Shaw.  Both saw heavy traffic on both leads in both directions, and lots of use.  I don't remember having to do anything to them other than to install them and hook up their Tortoise machines.  Never had a problem.  Both of them were LH, so maybe the issues were with RH...  But I found them good looking and useful.

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Haha, so this is kinda the feedback I'm expecting.

One "run away", one "it's fine".

I'll keep the voting open 

Also, I didn't realize there was one at Shaw. That really DID see some use.

[Steveruger45]

Haha, so this is kinda the feedback I'm expecting.

One "run away", one "it's fine".

I'll keep the voting open 

Also, I didn't realize there was one at Shaw. That really DID see some use.

Ah, so now you need two?  Well, based on the feedback so far, one will be ok.😊

[Rossford Yard]

I have had trouble with Atlas curved turnouts since I was in HO in 1981 or so. 

I have used the Atlas C55 curved ones, and while they don't fail regularly, they fail more than the various straight leg turnouts, and even their Y.  It may just be the geometry of the curves.  My problems always come from trains coming into the 2 track side of the turnout.  Some how, the rails just don't perfectly align from that end and the wheels catch.  As mentioned, maybe shims, soldering to a solid rail or other techniques could make them close to 100%.

To avoid aggravation, my new layout has none of them, which I recommend.  If you do use them, keep them easy to reach (and replace) and on spurs and branches only.  Not where 60% of your trains (and presumably 30% in the problem direction.....) will run.

Just MHO. (Based on experience)

[dem34]

It feels kinda like a coin flip sometimes, my layout is only Atlas C55 #5s, I dont really have that many issues. But that was after filing the hell out of them. Before filing they just felt random in the reliability department.

[Skeebo]

The Atlas Code 55 curved turnouts despite their size are of a tight radius. For that reason alone I would not recommend them. For an important traffic area such as you describe, definitely fast tracks, if you don't have the time or talent, I have heard there are folks who will do them for you for a price.

Jim

[davefoxx]

You may recall the A&R HCD layout that I designed approximately nine or ten years ago.  It was designed with several Atlas Code 55 curved turnouts, which ended in disaster, due to the poor design and quality control of these turnouts.  I ended up scrapping that entire layout, because the only way to have fixed it would have required handlaying track, which I had never done at that point in my life.  I love Atlas, but, if they haven’t improved those turnouts since then, run away.

DFF

[peteski]

Atlas uses metal castings for the frogs, guard rails, and points.  Those appear to be white metal (not nickel silver), which is then copper plated, and finally top-plated with silver colored metal.

Depending on your track cleaning method, in few years you might wear down the top plating, exposing the salmon-colored copper.  Salmon-colored frogs might not be what you want to see on your layout. Just saying . . . . 

[dnhouston]

I had four (2 of each type) but ended up pulling up and scrapping all of them.  I reworked my track to use regular turnouts, everything is much better now.

[Steveruger45]

.....  Salmon-colored frogs might not be what you want to see on your layout. Just saying . . . . 

Ahh, but then it would go nicely with a bright green fascia.  😁

[CRL]

I’ve never had any problems with Peco curved turnouts.

Just saying in case you need an alternative.

[Steveruger45]

I’ve never had any problems with Peco curved turnouts.

Just saying in case you need an alternative.

Me neither.  either the code 80 or the code 55 worked well on my last layout.  Pretty generous curves too.  IIRC they were 36” outside  and 18” inside with a 10 degree divergence angle.  I had the code 80’s in a difficult to get to area too.  No issues.

[Dayliner]

As much as I trust any other Atlas code 55 turnout, which is to say completely, with some caveats.  My layout has 52 turnouts, all Atlas code 55, and four of them are curved (three RH, one LH).  The Atlas code 55s are somewhat delicate, and require careful installation, but the curved turnouts have not given me any more trouble than the others.  I would put the reliability rate in the low-to-mid 90% range.

I would not say the Atlas code 55 is a perfect turnout, but I think it is the best-looking commercially-available turnout, and if carefully installed and regularly maintained, provides a level of reliability that is more than satisfactory.  I have always assumed that what problems do arise are simply part of the cost of doing business in N scale, or attributable to my general ineptitude.

With respect to radii, it helps to be modeling the late 1970s, and about the longest thing I run through them regularly is a 50-foot boxcar; although I do have a few 65-foot LPG tank cars which seem to negotiate the curves without difficulty.