Ok, I have all PECO switches on my layout, and most are insulfrogs, some are electricfrogs. The electricfrogs are the ONLY ones you need to insulate at the frog itself. Above is an example from my layout using insulfrogs, these are the standard cross-overs I have throughout my layout.
The key is to MAKE SURE, you wire both rails on both lines the same way, in my case, left rail was always black, right rail was always red. no need to insulate between the switches as they route power from one point to the other when you throw the switch. One thing to keep in mind is that since they route power they also cut power from the opposing track, look at the blue dots (power feeds) above notice I have feeders placed on that middle section of track. For whatever reason PECO insulfrogs switches will cut the power at the frog so you need to add a feeder to keep the other track powered.
Ok, now with that said, IF you wanted to create a reverse loop, where your inside track is bridged between two points on the same set of track (in this case your inside track)
In this example, the red tracks are my main lines (again both are wired the same as stated above) but as you can see I have a track that bridges (the green track) the inside track to itself on the other side of a loop. This enables you to turn a train around on that track.
To accomplish this you'll need to do 3 things:
1- Where the bridging track connects to the switches from the main line it needs to be insulated on BOTH rails at both ends. I marked those spots in my case with a blue line
2- Wire the Bridging track however you want, as long as one rail is positive and the other negative you'll be fine
3- Since you are running both DCC and DC get a digitrax AR1, it is an auto-reverser that will automatically switch the polarity of the bridging track to match that of which it is crossing onto. The AR1 works on both DC and DCC as it is only a circuit board that changes polarity and nothing else.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
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ace24I have two peco insulfrog turnouts,.One is medium radius right hand, the second one is curved left hand. Iam to know if I install these turnouts from one track to another track if I need to do any wiring.I am trying to fix to where my outside track will run to my inside track.
However, all the other wiring needed for you layout control system will still be in full effect. That is if the two tracks the turnouts are crossing between aren't powered properly they won't be after the turnouts are installed either, and if you are using DC cab type wiring all of that will still have to be in place. At least I presume you would want to break a block between the two turnouts.
I am not good at diagrams. I had help from one of club members. Thank you very much.
You are making a crossover. If both tracks are powered in the same direction and by the same throttle, then nothing more needs to be done. If you have wyes or reversing loops in there then it gets more complicated.
LION typically gaps all of the switches and then uses the position of the switch to route the track power on the selected route. This can get complicated and so we will need diagrams of your situation to provide more information.
You give us a diagram of the track, and we will give you a diagram for the wires!
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my layout is dc and dcc. thank you very much .ace24
I have two peco insulfrog turnouts,.One is medium radius right hand, the second one is curved left hand. Iam to know if I install these turnouts from one track to another track if I need to do any wiring.I am trying to fix to where my outside track will run to my inside track. Please help with diagrams or instructions.Thank you very much.ace24