Peco Electrofrog Question

[ljudice]

Am I correct in assuming that the rule on insulating is that facing turnouts must be completely insulated
from each other, so a yard ladder can have successive turnouts directly connected to each other - but any
lead heading to ANY facing turnout must be insulated?

Thanks!

- Lou

[wm3798]

It's been years since I've used them, but I don't remember having to insulate Insulfrogs, unless you want to use their power routing feature to isolate a siding that might be opened from either end.

On DCC it's a good idea to insulated the diverging rails on the frog side because the close proximity of the rails can cause a momentary short when a wide tread metal wheel strikes them both.

Lee

[ljudice]

Thanks, Lee, I'll give it a try!

[Blazeman]

Can't keep Insul and Electro straight, but on my DC layout under construction, current will pass through the switch when it comes from the points end of the switch. It will not pass through coming from the other direction, necessitating feeders beyond the switch from that direction.

The good feature of this is you can have a passing siding or spurs that won't receive power until the switch is thrown to the track for the spur/siding. So a train can be sent to the siding and "shut down" or a one stall engine terminal can hold motive power until the line is activated.

This info is detailed on the paperwork that comes with the PECO equipment. Hard to read but the drawing explains it nicely. This assumes you have the box or got them in boxes.

[ljudice]

Thanks - I had of course discarded all of the boxes and paperwork....   But no worry, I need more anyway....

I recall reading it a long time ago and feeling more confused than when I started. What I do know is that if you throw a switch facing another switch, everything shorts out unless you insulate.  But on the new layout I've tried to use this to my advantage in setting up logical blocks, etc...

You wonder sometimes how anyone would get into this hobby when you see the rigamarole you have to do just to install a few switches....

[rickb773]

Lou, you are correct in your initial assumptions.
But you do not need to put insulated railjoiners on single ended sidings.
You can control whether the siding has power, or not, by the switch/turnout position. So you can "hide" a live engine on the siding by throwing the switch the other way.

[Glenn Poole]

Lou, you are correct in your initial assumptions.
But you do not need to put insulated railjoiners on single ended sidings.
You can control whether the siding has power, or not, by the switch/turnout position. So you can "hide" a live engine on the siding by throwing the switch the other way.

Lou appears to be talking about electrofrog switches (at least his heading says so), not insulfrog switches, and I believe you must insulate at least one rail of the siding, otherwise you will have the same current going to both rails which  can be a short if there is an engine on it.  If you have cars only on it, then that is not a problem.  On an electrofrog switch, when it is in the straight position, both curved tails have the same current going to them.  I have over a 100 of these, I insulate all of them on the curved side. which means, Lou, that if you have a number of switches going in the same direction ( like a yard ladder) you don't have to insulate the straight side of the switches, but if you have two switches meeting each other, you need to insulate between them.

WM3798 appears to be talking about insulfrogs, not electrofrogs

[Bendtracker1]

Here is an example of what I ran into while using Peco insulfrog ELECTROFROG turnouts in my engine facility.  I believe it's what you are referring to.

These five turnouts lead into the ready tracks which are stub ended. I couldn't remember what I had to insulate either.

The yellow circles are the frog rails.  I had to insulate both rails on ALL of the turnouts since I had dropped power feeds to all of the ready tracks.  If I would not have powered the stub tracks, and relied on the power routing ability of the insulfrogs ELECTROFROG, the insulated rail joiners would not have been needed.

Hope this helps?

[Glenn Poole]

Here is an example of what I ran into while using Peco insulfrog turnouts in my engine facility.  I believe it's what you are referring to.

These five turnouts lead into the ready tracks which are stub ended. I couldn't remember what I had to insulate either.

The yellow circles are the frog rails.  I had to insulate both rails on ALL of the turnouts since I had dropped power feeds to all of the ready tracks.  If I would not have powered the stub tracks, and relied on the power routing ability of the insulfrogs, the insulated rail joiners would not have been needed.

Hope this helps?

I'm confused----Lou says he has a Peco Electofrog switch question and half the atemped answers are what one has done using Insulfrog turnouts.  Are we just confusing Lou more?

[Bendtracker1]

Sorry LOU & GLENN 

I meant to type ElectroFrog in my reply.

I went back and made the appropriate corrections.

Allen...

[Glenn Poole]

Sorry LOU & GLENN 

I meant to type ElectroFrog in my reply.

I went back and made the appropriate corrections.

Allen...

Now we are on the same page, Allen.  This is exactly what I have done.  By the way, I love these switches.  They "click" into place so you need no switch machine to hold them in place, and since my layout is only about 2 feet deep, I can reach all switches and I just move them by hand.

[Bendtracker1]

 Yep, so do I.
My layout is similar to yours.  No more than 2' deep.  They are not the best looking switches [like Atlas c55], nothing a little paint won't cure, but they ARE reliable!
The only turnouts that I have powered are a few in the yard that are beyond arm's reach.  I have these wired with a route matrix.

I had a couple on one of my modules that I used a SwitchMaster stall motor on.  Those worked great!

[ljudice]

OK - this all makes sense now!!!!  Thanks everyone for the (very) fast help!!!!

- Lou