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No Frog Power

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  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Trois-Rivieres Quebec Canada
  • 1,063 posts
Posted by jalajoie on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 10:04 AM

MisterBeasley

You may not be seeing a power drop, but rather a momentary short.  You've already looked closely at the frog and noticed the small gap between the two sides of the frog.  That gap is narrow enough that it can be "bridged" by some wheels.  When that happens, you get a short.

 

The solution is to paint the rails immediately adjacent to the gap with an insulator.  The one usually recommended is clear nail polish.  If you've got a Gothic girlfriend, you could use black nail polish if it's available.

This solution applies to Insulfrog, with Electro frog one has to power the frog even the points as David suggested.. 

Jack W.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,483 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 9:06 AM

You may not be seeing a power drop, but rather a momentary short.  You've already looked closely at the frog and noticed the small gap between the two sides of the frog.  That gap is narrow enough that it can be "bridged" by some wheels.  When that happens, you get a short.

 

The solution is to paint the rails immediately adjacent to the gap with an insulator.  The one usually recommended is clear nail polish.  If you've got a Gothic girlfriend, you could use black nail polish if it's available.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 5:30 AM

I don't own any Peco Code 100 Electrofrog turnouts, but from a close up photo of the turnout on the Wiring for DCC web site and other sources, it appears that the converging rails of the frog do not touch one another.

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_peco.htm

Scroll down to the second and third photos.

Hope this helps.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    March 2013
  • From: Australia
  • 158 posts
No Frog Power
Posted by tomcat on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 2:14 AM

Hi everyone

Needing help to find out why I would have no power on just one of the two frog rails .

Multimeter reads 12.7 on one rail, and 0.03 on the other one.

I use Peco code 100 electrofrog turnouts controlled by a cobalt turnout motor, (Don't know if you get them in the USA) but they are just like a tortoise motor only better (I think anyway)

So what I don't get is that whilst power to the frog is controlled by the motor

,Don't the two frog rails touch at the point end? or is there a minute gap at the end? so why isn't the power travelling through to the other rail of the frog?

Locos don't stop on the dead rail but all lights go out and sound drops off momentarily until the engine picks up power again once through the turnout,

 its a real pain in the #!%* turning head lights board lights and others every lap.

Any ideas?

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