Please, what difference between Insulfrog and Eletrofrog?
CJA
The insulfrog frog is insulated from electical power. Wiring is required to make it carry power. The electrofrog frog is not insulated, which requires a different set of wiring requirements.
I modify Atlas turnouts to make them essentially similar to the electrofrog. For me, it reduces wiring complexity (gets rid of a bunch of control panel switches) by making the turnouts power routing (the electricity goes whichever way you throw the stunout).
Hope this helps.
Tom
Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!
Go Big Red!
PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"
Insulfrog, as Tom says, means that the frog is physically separated from the rest of the rails in the turnout. The frog may or may not be powered...depends on the manufacuring and design. The idea is that most modern locomotive models can straddle an unpowered frog in the #4-#8 turnout range and not stall due to a lack of power. It prevents the few electrically sensitive wheel sets that are somewhat wide or narrow from the optimal gauge from making contact with a frog that is getting power that will cause a short. The idea is to make it a neutral/unpowered frog (dead, or insulated) and have the engine simply cross the frog mechanically and resume power pickup on the other side.
Electrofrog turnouts are also electrically separated from the rest of the turnout rails. However, they have power going to the frog which can either be controlled manually via a toggle switch or via the points rails and contacts from the adjacent stock rails.
The difference can be of some importance to no importance at all depending on what types of locos you want to run.Electrofrog types are totally electrified,meaning that there is no "dead spots" where an engine is likely to stop because of lack of current in the tracks.They can be installed two ways,one being just "as is" and rely on the moving rail contacting the track for powering.This will work fine as long as the contact point is clean.The other way is ensuring power to the moving rail by supplying current to it through an additional wire going through the benchwork.This is the most "bullet-proof" installation as it warrants good electrical supply all the time but will require the use of a relay or some power switching device to handle the polarity to the moving rail.In both cases though,the frog has to be insulated from the neighbouring tracks.
The "insulfrog" types have a rather smal area (the frog) that doesn't carry current.They shine by their simplicity,just install them.No insulators or power switching device required.Power is supplied by the tracks connected on both ends.However,although not much,they can create problems for very short or poorly electrified locos that will stop due to power starvation,specially when they actually are stopped over the frog.They might need a little push to get restarted.Most modern locomotives are very well equipped to pick up current from the tracks so this problem is minimal at worst.We,at the club,have both types of turnouts installed and the insulfrog don't cause any more grief than the electrofrog types,wich occasionally will short with an out of gauge loco.
Insulated frog turnouts have an electrically 'dead' frog, and the closure rails carry the same polarity (DC) or phase (DCC) as the adjacent stock rail.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
So-called "Electrofrog" turnouts have solid-metal frogs that are electrically one with the closure rails and (usually) points. Power is either fed through the points (unreliable) or through contacts on the switch machine or manual throw device - relays are seldom necessary. The advantages of insulated frogs are an electrofrog's disadvantages, and vice versa. In addition, a locomotive entering an electrofrog turnout lined for the other route WILL cause a short.
If the isolated frog is metal, it is possible to power just the frog as in an electrofrog, and thereby eliminate the problem with short pickup wheelbases. This requires another wire, and contacts on the actuator.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on hand-laid 'electrofrog' specialwork)
For those of us just getting started with DCC, which type would be best to use with DCC?
Thanks,
Dave in Maine
'there's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear' Modeling the Hard Knox Valley Railroad in HO scale http://photos.hardknoxvalley.com/
selector wrote:DCC was what gave the impetus to insulfrog turnouts. It solved some problems for many people, so the manufacturers began to offer them in numbers.....
Actually, Atlas began offering insulated turnouts back in the late '50s in their Snap Track line, followed by their Custom-Line turnouts in the very early '60s - long before the advent of DCC. Atlas used plastic insulated frogs so that no learning of how to gap powered frog turnouts was required. The curse of insulated frogs was and is the unpowered section causing stalls, or at the very least flickering of lights.
But if learning how to gap power routing turnouts gives you fits - and it did bedevil many both in those days and today - then the insulated frog greatly simplifies life. This is especially true for the train set crowd - can you imagine teaching Dad setting up Junior's train set on Christmas day that he had to insulate the frog rail to insert a turnout into an oval, but didn't have to if the turnout was put in as part of a stub end yard (provided there were no feeders beyond the frog)? The insulated frog was critical then for the success of expandable train sets, just as it is today for those who want to hook up their DCC and go without learning any wiring.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W