No one says you have to use a Frog Juicer because of switching to DCC - the "old way" of contacts on the switch machine setting the frog polarity works just fine in DCC - in fact I prefer this as opposed to the electronic method which is "when there's a short, then do something to fix it" - I'm not a huge fan of autoreversers for this same reason - not when with most loops it's fairly trivial to have the polarity of the loop track set by the turnout position so there never is a short in the first place.
Where Frog Juicers come in handy are when you use manual switch stands that don;t have contacts to use, or when you have a complex arrangement that is next to impossibly to map out the correct connections between all the switch machine contacts - the Frog Juicer was originally developed exactly for that, because of the insnae (but completely prototypical) trackwork on Tim Warris' CNJ Bronx Terminal layout. All those overlapping frogs - yeah, I'd rather not try to figure out all the possible combinations to get the polarity right. A friend had a hand laid double crossover that also had an additional single crossover superimposed - I tried mapping out all the possible combinations and what the frog polarities should be in each case, and we never did get it to be 100%, eventually he simplified the track arrangment and it all worked then. Also more reliably - this was handlaid code 40 in N scale, and that complex arrangement was not completely reliable with tracking, either. A bunch of Frog Juicers would have come in handy there.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
This is my first foray into the wonderful world of DCC. Thanks guys I will work out.
Long days and pleasant nights.
Freelancing MCRR/NYC Northern Division - Angelo
I agree. You will need a separate juicer for each turnout.
Peco makes a SPDT toggle that attaches to the switch machine which can do the same job.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Wouldn't a branchline train be on two different frogs at the same time? If so, there would be a need to have two different polarities dependihg on how the turnouts are thrown.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I'm currently stock piling electrofrog Peco for my layout (live frog) as well, but I don't see how you could use one Frog Juicer to switch polarity across all.
It is my understanding each turnout would need it's own polarity feed, simply because frogs need to be independantly controlled for polarity.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Merry Christmas,Happy Holidays
I have three pico code 100 #6 turnouts with live frogs all in a row. Since this is a branch line on a bigger layout which operates a climax loco, I was wondering if I can wire my Frog Juicer in series or will one Frog Juicer switch polarity across all?