Powered/ Non powered Froggies

[Anonymous]

Why do many model railroaders power the frogs in a turnout? what advantages do you get from powering them? Is it ok not to power them?

Thanks[;)]

[ndbprr]

The longer the wheells stay in contact the less the chance of stalling but that is the minor reason. the major reason is if you connect your feeds at the point end tof the turnout he outside rails are always north and south but the inner two rails get power from the points touching either of the rails. So you have a situation where the four rails downrailroad from the frog are either N,N,N,S or N,S,S,S and in essence you get a free block because the train in the direction opposite of the way the pointsare set is electrically isolated.

[BR60103]

If you have an unpowered frog that is longer than a truck, you run the chance that a loco will stall on it. This really affects - 4 wheeled steam locos, or others that only pickup from the 4 drivers, - diesels that only pickup from one truck on each side - locos with deep flanges that rise up on the frog and lose contact.
The ideal wiring for a turnout is: points connected to the adjacent stock rail and not connected to each other or the frog; frog connected to a switch on the switch machine so it gets connected to the proper stock rail; gaps past the frog so that it isn't powered from the other end. The wiring past the frog may be different with DC and DCC as there are different considerations there.

[jfugate]

I've used both powered and dead frogs and since I run modern all-wheel pickup diesels, I have come to prefer dead frogs.

The main thing I do not like about powered frogs is how you short the track if you run into a turnout with the points thrown against you. In the DCC world, a short on the track causes more annoyance than it does in the pure DC world.

Since the diesels tend to run fine over the dead frog, and you have less moving parts by just leaving the frog dead, and if you are careless enough to run into a turnout with the points thrown against you, you simply end up on the ground, just as you would in the prototype.