I think there was a subject like this recently that I remember answering.

Railpro power puts out 14.7 v (dc), so it is on the high side. But as you stated - seems to work.
You could also power it with an old Tyco or other standard DC xfmr from past train sets if you have any.(?) - and dial the voltage back to 11 or 12v for a lower output, plus not taking anything away from the rail power system, if it happens to short again, may run the risk of messing up a module, or other RP equipment since it's all connected from track ... just a thought.

wow... over 1000 views and no replies. Time for experimentation.

This is my current switching area:


This whole section of my layout was given to me by a plumber who was doing some work in our house. I'm not the type to throw away something like this (and neither was he, apparently). All the Atlas switches are wired in series for power. I took the power lead and simply hooked it up to the track to try it out.

Result: Yes. Yes, you can run Atlas Snap Switches with track power. 

Now, in all honesty, these switches are crap and the second one I threw jammed and caused a short. Once that cleared, I cycled through all of them multiple times and even held the buttons down for a few seconds just to recreate the short and everything worked fine. I plan to build a much better control panel with far better switches in the future, but if anyone is wondering if it can be done, I would say it looks like it can.

Now I am definitely going to have to get a second power unit for my layout.   

Hi Chris - Welcome.
I dove back into HO after a 25 break, Railpro looked better than DCC for me also. I have converted 4 Loco's so far, they are neat to operated.
Still have to try the sound loading thing... next on the list.

Where a sound is greyed out / doesn't play then the sound file that the page links to doesn't exists on the server. There are quite a few of those.

If a sound is grayed out on the RP site is there a way to audition it before taking the time upload it to a hand controller?

No, if a playable sound is not on that page then there is no a way to hear it without loading it to a module.

- Tim

Interesting. If they are grayed out, then I would think they should be removed.