Craig North Carolina
Your guess is correct - Generally speaking, it can improve performance and decrease the chance of stalling over the turnout.
But whether or not you need it depends on a number of factors such as size of the locos, and the arrangement of their power pickups. For example, a short wheelbase loco, or a steam loco with pickups on one side of the loco and on the other side of the tender may not be able to span the "dead spot".
Do you encounter any issues with the turnouts you already have in place? If not, I wouldn't bother wiring them. But if you do, or if you're a "belt and suspenders" kind of person, you might want to.
Remember, too, that proper wiring on the rest of the layout, and good, clean rails will also help.
A lot depends on the size of the turnouts you use, and the types of locos you run. More modern locos with all wheel pickup will do better than older ones which only pick up power on one side of the front truck or loco and the other side of the rear truck or tender. Shorter (sharper diverging route, lower number) turnouts generally have a smaller insulated area at the frog (not all brnads are created equal) and may still handle you locos without powering the frog so long as the rails and wheels are clean as there will always be some wheels on powered track. A larger frog number, more gentle turnout will generally have a larger frog area and the dead area may be too much for the wheels to span. Small locos, like a 'critter' diesel, or Trackmobile, or one of those BLI inspection cars, almost certainly require powered frogs to operate smoothly without stalling or jerking. On a #8, and even a #6 turnout, those things are so short that it is entirely possible for the whole thing to be contained within the insulated frog area and get no power. Go in fast enough and they may coast past the dead spot with a huge jerk, but that's hardly realistic. Power the frog and they should be able to maintain a nice realistic speed all the way through.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
What kind of turnouts do you have? Atlas snap-switches and Peco turnouts have plastic frogs, so you can't power them. Walthers-Shinohara and Atlas Customline turnouts have metal frogs.
When I started using Walthers-Shinohara turnouts and Tortoises on part of my layout, I didn't power the frogs at first. They worked OK, but there were occasional stalls. So, I tried wiring the frogs on the problem turnouts. The results were very good, so I went back and retrofitted the rest of them. Now, I do it routinely during turnout installation. It's just a small effort then, while it's a lot more awkward later on.
As a middle ground, you could just solder a green wire to the frog before you mount the turnout. (Frogs are green, so you'll recognize your frog wires instantly.) Then you can connect it to the Tortoise later on if you feel you need it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyAs a middle ground, you could just solder a green wire to the frog before you mount the turnout. (Frogs are green, so you'll recognize your frog wires instantly.) Then you can connect it to the Tortoise later on if you feel you need it.
At a minimum, this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Given that the goal of Craig's layout (unmentioned here, but noted in other posts) is to build a logging line of some kind, possibly narrowgauge, you WILL want to wire those frogs to be controlled by one of the two sets of contacts on the Tortoise.
It's already been mentioned that short wheelbase locos have more troubles getting through an unpowered frog. For light steam locos and narrowgauge, the solutions are even more important than they are on a modern standard gauge layout. In fact, I would not build a HO narrowgauge layout without powering the frogs. Just too many chances of things stalling. Even under good conditions, maintaining effective contact can be iffy, so you don't want to miss this opportunity to improve performance.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL