QUOTE: Originally posted by Trainnut1250 To answer questions: Yes the turnouts have metal frogs. Both the Shinohara and the Micro Engineering come with metal frogs. In the DCC Friendly version, the frog is dead and the stock and closure rails are hard wired together. The Micro Engineering provides a "solder pad" on the bottom of the frog to solder a lead for powering the frog if you desire to do so. To solder to the Shinohara/Walthers frog you have to cut through some plastic on the bottom. Currently I am running the turnouts with the frogs dead. I have soldered leads to them in case the contact deteriorates and I want to power them. All of my recent plastic steam and a couple of smaller diesels have no problems creeping through the unpowered frogs. As the layout is new, I am installing the feeder wires as extra insurance. We will see how things are after ballasting, painting and age take their toll. I should mention that I am talking code 83 and 70 No 6 turnouts here. I have installed four Walthers/Shinohara curved turnouts and they have a much larger dead frog. I have not tested these yet to see how they work. The unpowered section is large enough that I suspect I will be utilizing my feeders on these switches.
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!