Dual gauge turnouts

[Cajonpassfan]

Anybody here have any experience with HO scale dual gauge turnouts by Lambert? We have several we’d like to use, but not if they are problematic and can’t be fixed.
Thank you,
Otto K.

[Santa Fe Guy]

 Sorry Otto no one I know uses these so cannot help.
Rod.

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks Rod, much appreciated. I thought I’d try here, having gotten no responses on the narrow gauge thread. Odd that no one has experience with these…  I think we’ll build a test track on a piece of plywood and try them out before committing ourselves.
Still, I’d appreciate you guys asking around in the narrow gauge circle of friends….
Thanks again, Otto

[learmoia]

I'll ask someone tomorrow who might know...

[Mark5]

Anybody here have any experience with HO scale dual gauge turnouts by Lambert?

Wow, there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.  I vaguely recall that Lambert track was made by Shinohara. If true, the HO club I belonged to a million years ago had good luck with Shinohara track, but I can't remember if we had any dual gauge track.

[Tristan Ashcroft]

Wow, there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.  I vaguely recall that Lambert track was made by Shinohara. If true, the HO club I belonged to a million years ago had good luck with Shinohara track, but I can't remember if we had any dual gauge track.

Whoa, yeah, Lambert-Shinohara...  That was a thing back in the second millennium.  I guess before there was Walthers-Shinohara?  So if it's that, and not some other sort of Lambert-(other manufactuer) sort of deal, the switches are probably reliable - to some preference.  So simple single-gauge Shinohara switches of that vintage were all (or at least most?) power routing frogs, which means that for DCC one must spend some time gapping the frog before sending electricity to the rails (and could solder on jumpers and all the other things) - otherwise the switch is an automatic short.  I suppose one could put insulated joiners on the two inside rails past the frog and a frog juicer for the whole shebang between the point rails and the other end of the switch... but that seems sketchy.  Anyway, for a dual guage turnout, I don't know how power routing frogs would work...  maybe there's a way.  And if that's the case, you'll be gapping frogs all over the place before you even begin to use DCC.  Which, good luck.  It seems doable.  (I use a manual metal saw with a thin blade, because the metal cutting disks I have for my Dremel are awfully thick...  then I use Emory cloth to open the gap enough to fit a thin sheet of styrene in there.  And I make the gap next to a tie so that I can then use solvent to glue the styrene sheet to the tie, then I cut/file the plastic down to the rail profile... maybe there's a better way) 

So anyway, Otto, what code are these switches and are the frogs insulated?

[Hiroe]

I've worked with these. They're not bad, and are serviceably decent if you install and care for them properly.
They will sometimes need the points resoldered to the throwbar/hinge bar.
If I was going to use them these days, I'd connect the frog cluster to an autoreversing Frog Juicer.

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks guys, appreciated. We'll do some testing and go from there.
Otto