Atlas HO 572 Code 83 Track 19-Degree Crossing

Great service from ModelTrainStuff. Ordered my 19 degree crossing and had it in my hand 2 days later.

Have two and both were out of NMRA standards. Gauge and flange ways were both too wide. Also, all the built in jumpers connecting all the rails makes it almost impossible to fix the constant shorting that results from the plastic insulating gaps in the frogs being too small which allows wheels to bridge the isolating gaps.

These crossings have been nothing but trouble. It started with the gauge being too wide. After several hours of carefully filing the flangeways to allow the NMRA gauge to slide through, it was time for power. The first locomotive through immediately shorted out. The design has frog points and rails that are always hot and are not isolated enough to prevent wheels from bridging the plastic isolator gaps. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to fix this by just cutting gaps in the rails to isolate the points as they have jumpers embedded everywhere. Also unfortunate is that I have 7 turnouts that will have to be ripped out in order to change the crossing degree for these two crossings since no one else makes a 19 degree code 83 crossing.