MTH tinplate frog problem

[FJ and G]

One of my best friend's wife got my friend a BEAUTIFUL toy train (O) tinplate; I believe it is the Blue Comet.

He adores it; esp. coming from his sweetheart.

One small problem. It cruises OK on his Atlas track but when it reaches the frog, it bottoms out, if you know what I mean, with those DEEP flanges that are so cool looking.

He plans to carve out the frogs so the flanges can pass.

Is this the best solution?

He Atlas turnouts are pretty high priced and I want to ensure he's doing it right (he's not a forum member but I'm a bit concerned).

[1688torpedo]

Hello Dave! I knew a Gent who had a similar problem. His solution was to take a small piece of wood and shape it to conform to the open area surrounding the frog.Thus, Eliminating any open gaps & allowing prewar trains to run over his switches without the Pickup Rollers Sinking into the open area which sounds like what is happening here.Hope this helps?

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Keith.

The problem is in the filling used for the frogs. When the tinplate's deep flange hits the filling, it bumps the locomotive up in the air. He plans on carving out the filling to allow for the deeper flanges.

The only problem I see is that once he cuts it deeper, his modern equipment may hit a dip in the flange and the solution might be worse than the problem.

[1688torpedo]

Hello Dave! If at all posibble; Your Friend may have to change over to prewar switch tracks if this is the case & use the Atlas Switches for Modern Trains? Then that way he will not have to cut deep into his Atlas Swiches & have a worse problem than before. This is a Good reason why the New Switch Tracks made today by all of the manufacturer's should by labeled for compatibility. e.g. Prewar,postwar,modern era,tinplate,Marx, etc.So that the end user does not have to go through all of this trial & error and have his trains run through switch tracks without any jumps,bumps, or derailments. Hope your friend can find a reasonable solution to his problem. Take Care.

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Keith,

I agree!!!!!!!! Very good point.

Obviously you can't fault the guy for "lack of research" as it was his wife who bought it as a Christmas surprise.

I'm actually going thru a similar problem, as there's a guy who emailed me who wants to sell me a live-steam tinplate. I'm a bit concerned about flange depth, tho.