I am buying some new turnouts.
What is the difference between insul. frog and Electro frog turnouts (). My current tunouts are Electro frog and when I run a 4-8-4 on them it shorts.
It might not be the frog anyway...but insulfrog turnouts have dead frogs. Electro-frog turnouts have the frog isolated the same way, but they are fed power dependent on the way the points rails are set.
Sometimes the problem is at the frog rails, where they form the widening V at the divergence. A wide metal tire on a power-bearing axle bridges both rails momentarily and will cause a short.
What is likely in your case is that one of your flanges is bridging the gap between the open point rail and its adjacent stock rail. The problem is that both points rails in some turnouts get the same power orientation from a metal wiper below the points. If the opposite side of the axle swiped the open point that is now getting the same polarity as its mate that is flush to its adjacent stock rail, you can expect a short.
So, your gap is wrong or your wheel separation, the gauge, is wrong. Do you have an NMRA gauge?
Selecter is correct. I had the same problem. Check the gauge of the wheels and the turnouts. At the spot where the 2 sides cross I took a screw driver and separated them just a bit. On 1 that didn't cooperate I took a dremel and ground the edges to give alittle extra clearance. I've read where some use clear fingernail polish to paint the inside of the rails where they cross and have good luck. This is actually a pretty common problem.
Springfield PA
Insul frog turnouts are power routing with an insulated frog. Electrofrog turnouts usualy need insulating joiners on the two frog rails. Insulfrog turnouts are drop in place and need no insulators. Most of the Peco turnouts have a very wide flangeway between the guardrail and outside rails. This is due to the fact that they are a British standard that use large wheel flanges. I will take a truck from a freight car and put a little side presure tword the frog as it rolls past and see if ip will pick the frog point. What I have been doing on mine is to glue a styrene strip to the inside of the guard rail to narrow the gap. .015 by .060 styrene strip stock from the hobby shop solves the problem every time.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!