RH 1121 Electrical Question

[wyomingscout]

Bob, thought it was the frog rivet.  Anyway, I thought the short might be where the wire comes through the turnout to the conductor on the bottom.

charlie

[lionelsoni]

The frog is riveted directly to the bottom plate.  Are you sure you're not talking about the rivet that the points pivot on?

[wyomingscout]

Recently, the circuit breaker on my ZW cut power to the track.  The suspicious section of track has four turnouts.  Transferring this portion of the layout to my 1033, and leaving it 'off', other track, accessories & lights continued to work through the ZW.  Luckily, upon removing the first turnout - a RH 1121-, the short circuit went away.  For now, I have replaced the 1121 with a RH 5122.

All of the red and black rail insulators appear to be in good shape.  When tested, current flowed from all rails to the other rails no matter what position the turnout is in.  This didn't seem right to me, so I isolated the curved 3rd rail with electrical tape except where it clamps around the conductor on the bottom.  Still, current flowed from all rails to each other.

I unclamped the straight and curved 3rd rails from the insulation and conductor on the bottom and swung the conductor to the side.  Now current flows to all rails except these two. This supports the red and black insulators being good.

Is my problem a short where the frog rivet & spacer go through the frog rail, insulation, and conductor?  Or is it somewhere else?

wyomingscout