TheRailwire
General Discussion => HO and Larger Scales => Topic started by: h2w on August 17, 2014, 10:47:10 PM
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hello my yard lead switch has been giving me problems , for the first few days it worked fine the engine rolled thru with out any problems today it started stalling as it was between the frog and the points, there might be a small upward bow in the switch would this be the problem? any other ideas would be great.
thanks
mark
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Are your frogs powered? Probably not. This creates a dead spot, and, if your wheels (and the rails adjacent to the frog) are not really clean, you're looking at stalling locomotives at some point.
On my layout, I powered the frogs, because there's not much more annoying than watching headlights flicker when a train is running. I'm using Hex Frog Juicers, which are, unfortunately, not inexpensive, but they work great. The frogs are all now powered, and I don't even have to worry about polarity. There's other options out there to power your frogs, too, e.g., Tortoise switch motors can be used to power frogs
Hope this helps,
DFF
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Also, if the switch points rely on contact with the main stock rails of the switch to pick up power, instead of having their own power jumpers to the point rails, that can create a really massive dead spot if a little piece of dirt gets in between the point and the stock rail. Worse than dead frogs.
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ok thanks I ended up hookin up feeders on each side of the dead spot seems to work
thanks again
mk