# An Atlas Turntable Wiring Mod to Improve Conductivity



## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

Well, I finally got fed up with the flickering locomotive lights and general poor reliability of the atlas turntable electrical design. I've had too many issues with poor electrical connections caused by the way the electrical signal gets up to the rails from below the table. For anyone that hasn't taken the thing apart, the electrical signal arrives at a plate below the table then goes up through a "piston" which has two parts with a spring inside. The pistons (one for each rail) push up against the bottom of the rail and down against the bottom plate, and that's what "connects" the signal and enables the table to turn all the while.

Problem is, I've had too many problems with the pistons remaining clean enough, especially the connection between the bottom of the rail and the top of the piston. I finally fixed that last night. What I did was run a very tiny 36 AWG wire from the top part of the piston to the rail SOLDERED at both ends. I soldered the wire to the outside of the rails and ran it down the channel to each piston, and then soldered it to the side of the piston. The black wire cannot be seen. What this does is totally eliminate a conductivity issue with that part of the signal path - the part where the piston has to connect to the rail. It is now not dependent on the spring and cleanliness of the piston/rail contact area. After re-assembling, it works FANTASTIC!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

With certain locos my O atlas turntable acts up too.
I will have to check your fix out on mine, thanks for posting.


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