Okay guys I'm back.....and really scratching my head on this one. I have a yard ladder consisting of Peco #4 INSULFROG turnouts. I have power wires coming from my bus to each rail at the point end of the first turnout.
Something like this
power 1 2 3 4 5
_____.________/_____/______/_____/_______/_________
Problem is if there is an engine past the first turnout, looking from left to right, and the first turnout is thrown into the yard track, all the power to the right of that turnout dies. If I throw it back power comes back. Go to the 2nd yard track, same thing happens. Everything to the right stops. Its not shorting out because the engine thats to the left of the yard turnout that has been thrown continues to move. These are INSULFROG. There should not be any power routing. Thats the idea behind having insulfrogs. But power routing is exactly what is going on and I am stumped. I also tried hooking power to the far right..the same thing occurs only in reverse. Throw turnout #5 and all power to the left goes away.
What the heck am I doing wrong guys?
John
The Dames Point Industrial Railroad
http:\\dpirr.blogspot.com
Hi John
If my memory serves me corectly the insulfrog turnouts are power routed. Electrofrog are not. If you are useing DCC you can fix this easily by dropping feeders to the buss. Better than relying on rail joiners. I use DCC and feed every rail except turnouts. I know its a lot but you cant argue about reliability. Another thing to check on your pecos are the little contacs under the points. Any glue or paint will cause a power drop.
Hope this helps Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Pete
The insulfrogs are NOT power routed from everything I have read. The electrofrogs are, unless I am reading everything wrong. The insulfrogs should be just like a standard Atlas turnout that has a plastic frog. And its not a power drop. Its a power cutoff. Zero..zip...nada..Acting just like power routing where the track that the points are going to is the track that gets power. I had thought about doing drops after every turnout but that sure seems like overkill. I can see every few feet but not every 10 inches.
Okay please disregard everything in this question...after much further investigation it appears that insulfrog and electrofrog turnouts are both power routing type turnouts...plenty of confusing and misinformation out there..but I now have the correct answer..
thanks all
Based on my experience with Peco turnouts,I can tell that both Electrofrog and Insulfrog TO's are power routing.I personally find this feature more or less useful however.Some enjoy the possibility of having a ladder track completely shut down so that they can park DC operated engines on them while not in use.My personal way is to feed the ladder track through a SPST switch and install an insulator at the TO,but that's me.
But if you use the power routing feature to power the yard lead,then current will not go beyond the first turnout that happens to be thrown towards the ladder.Individual feeders are needed between every turnout to ensure reliable feed beyond that thrown TO.Although it may work for a while,depending on a series of rail contacts at every TO for power is likely to fail unless your track is kept absolutely clean all the time.My two cents.....