Where to attach the feeders in a nest of turnouts?

[crossthedog]

Hi. Here's the sitch:

I am finally laying track past the bridge and into the upper town. I want to leave a gap in the track where the bridge attaches, indicated by the orange arrow in the image below (pardon the mess, the house has bupkus storage and everything ends up in the garage). However, this is not going to constitute another electrical block. I just want to be able to lift the bridge out without having to fight the rails and joiners -- there will be lots of scenicking and other tomfoolery going on for several years.

This branch is powered by a bus that connects to the rails on the downhill side of the bridge. I'm extending the bus to come under this area -- you can see the wires coming in at the bottom right corner -- and here's where I am stumped.

Wiring books I've read say that feeders should always be attached in front of the points, and I've been pretty fastidious about that. But this area is a snakepit of turnouts. five of them to be precise, and anywhere I put the feeders will be on the wrong side of one set of points or another. Where should I put the feeders?

I've marked the five locations in front of the turnout points in red numerals so that the torrent of helpful info that is about to descend upon my head will be reduced in complexity and made easier to undestand by the measure of avoided descriptions of which part of the track you're talking about. 

Notes:

• Layout is DC mostly, although I can and do occasionally switch the whole layout into DCC mode. 
• Frogs are going to be powered.
• The branch deadends off to the left. All these tracks are industry spurs, or station tracks, or a runaround, etc.
• Thank you.

-Matt

[Pruitt]

I think it depends on the brand of turnout, to some extent.

On my Fast Tracks turnouts, I attach feeders downstrem from the frog, because the frog is isolated. Stock rails are solid and power the closure rails and points, so feeders can be anywhere on those. The rails coming into the frog need to be added for each turnout to power those rails.

Don't know if that helps or not...

[crossthedog]

Pruitt

The rails coming into the frog need to be added for each turnout to power those rails. Don't know if that helps or not...

Mark, it's strange that you say this, because it's sort of opposite of what the old Atlas wiring book says, but it gibes with what I've experienced. In other areas of my layout, the rails coming into the frog seem to be the place where things go dead for some of my old steamers, and I've had to add a feeder or two in those areas.

Lastspikemike

Wire any pair of rails and they'll all be powered.

Mike, I imagine what you say is true, but I need some clarification because it seems to contradict what Mark just said. Do you mean that I can power any pair of rails IN EACH TURNOUT? Or are you saying two wires anywhere in this mess will cover it? I'm happy to do less work, and I may try that first, just putting a pair of feeders on one pair of rails between 2 and 3 in my photo. If it works for the whole upper branch, great. If it only works for the frog in the first turnout, well at least that one will be done.

Lastspikemike

The "rule" about always powering from the points towards the frog only applies to power routing turnouts and particularly Peco Electrofrogs.

I have to admit I haven't got a good handle on what power routing really is yet. Isn't that what I'm doing when I attach a wire from the frog to post 4 of a Tortoise and from the stock rails to posts 2 and 3 to change the polarity with the throw?

Thanks for the responses, guys. I can see this one might stretch my gray matter for a while before I get it.

-Matt

[MisterBeasley]

Did you ever see "A Thousand Clowns" with Jason Robards, Jr.?  He was kind of an eccentric character.  He had a lot of metal wall-mounted eagles, and when his son asked why, our hero said, "Son, you can never have too many eagles."

The same goes for feeders.  You can never have too many, particularly around a lot of turnouts.

 

 

 

[crossthedog]

MisterBeasley

You can never have too many, particularly around a lot of turnouts.

Well, right, as long as I don't do something "bad" like crossing the streams.

 

 

[crossthedog]

Mike, thanks for the lesson. I don't have the new Atlas book you mention but I have the old one by Paul Mallery and I like it well. I guess my takeway from your response is that I can ignore all the warnings about power routing because all my frogs (Atlas, Walthers/new Shinohara) are isolated and they start out dead, until I make them undead. Zombie frogs. 

-Matt

I like that phrase "the route not travelled." I wonder if it could be worked into a poem.