Anyone have problems with the distance between the point of the frog and the following rail? I am finding only in some cases with some loco's and some car's the wheels drop down off the point of the frog and come back up on the following rail because the distance is too great. It's not a big deal except in DCC while running some loco's the interuption in power or DCC signal causes the Loco (mainly) to slow, pause or sometimes stop because either the decoder and motor are not getting a continuos signal or voltage.
Yep, the dreaded Atlas dip.Their code 83's are the same way. I found playing with your wheel gauge can help. I can't remember if I made them wider or narrower. Some put a thin strip of styrene in the bottom of the frog to help stop the "bump".Are your frogs powered? Powering them will help with locos stalling on them.
Thanks, the styrene is a good idea. The frogs I beleive are powered but the actual distance from the frog point to the next rail of connectivity is greater than the diameter of the wheel as I beleive the frog is of a plastic material.
I had one frog that I extended the point by making a frame and pouring plastic from a old kit spur (black) and forming it with the soldering iron. It didn't stick well so I used some AC(superglue) to hold it in place and then filed it down. (Labor intensive). The gap issue was solved, no bounce.
I may have a mixture of powered and unpowered, how can one check to determine. ? If the frog is a plastic material the frog is unpowered and if it's metal it's powered?
I'll say what I always say - my previous layout was all Atlas Code 83 #6 and #4. The only 'issue' I had was the straight stock rail of the #4's not being straight, they have curve to them. Every single one - and they still do, looked at some new ones at the LHS over the weekend. Every time I had a car bump over the frogs, it was checked and the wheels were out of gauge. EVERY time.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Don't get me started on those #4's...I'm trying to use them in my street trackage, but with the bends on the outside rail the track doesn't go striaght down my road, it weaves back and forth which looks REALLY strange.
I saw someone posted that they pulled the outside rail straight against a metal straightedge and tacked it down with track nails, but for a guy like me caulking it to cork over foam, I don't have that option and haven't figured a way to hold the turnout in place until the caulk dries...which assumes that it owuld even be able to hold it.