Wiring Kato turnouts using Atlas controllers
Hi there. I am building a n scale layout for a disabled person. I am not a pro at this by any means but the project up until now as gone well. It is a L shaped layout mounted to the wall on two sides of his living room. My problem is this. I talked this persons parents into going with Kato Unitrack which I am very happy with. I ordered everything I would need trackage wise from a hobby shop in Green Bay that gave me a discount because of who I was building the layout for. I gave them a copy of the plans and they shipped me everthing except turnout controls. Another hobby shop closer to home did not have the kato lever type controllers but said I could use the Atlas controllers that have the switch that you slide and push. So I mounted the controllers to the layout, ran the wiring that came with the kato turnouts to the controllers, cut the kato plugins that would normally would have been plugged into the kato lever type switches off leaving very little if any wire to waste. I then connected the wires to the four atlas controllers which I connected to each other end to end. Each controller has the three screws and I used the left and right screw because I was told the center screw was for a ground. I hooked the wires up to the kato power pack and none of the turnouts worked. I then tried using a MRC powerpack and they still would not work on either the track power of accessories power. I tried running a ground from the middle screw on the controller to one of the screws fastening the metal plate to the bottom of the turnout but that caused his train to take off as soon as I tried reconnecting the turnout to the rest of the track. So what besides not going with all kato components am I doing wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Welcome to nScale.net,
Welcome to nScale.net, whiskeycentralron!
While I don't think I can help you directly you may very well find this thread 3rd Party Switches for Kato Unitrack Turnouts from early 2007 to be of interest! One post even has some wiring diagrams.
BTW, don't forget the search feature (upper right corner), it can be your friend!
Again, welcome, and I am sure you will be receiving some additional responses.
Welcome!
Great to see you. anyway, i would highly recommend caboose industries manual switches for STAGING ONLY! on your main lin(depending on the size, use life-like turnouts switches. They usually come with a wiring guide
if you cannot find any cheap, check out this site; i use it for all my hobby needs.



Joined: 2008-05-27