dcc friendly turnouts


joed2323

Member
i recently bought around 15 #6 and #8 turnouts from atlas.

I plan on running dcc and im flipping thru my modelrailroader magazine and notice a add by walthers that says dcc friendly turnouts:

Fully assy/ prewired jumper/ isolated frog w/built in connection/ powered points w/correct polarity/ isolated tie bar/ and so on.

did i just spend about 200 dollars on turnouts for nothing. Please tell me i can convert these to accept dcc.

but wow those dcc turnouts are pricy - anywhere from 26 dollars and up.. i thought what i payed was alot

right now im thinking
 
You should be able to make those work just fine. Just get out a voltage meter and measure voltage through the points and see where you do and don't have it. Then just wire and solder in feeder wires where you need them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok great im running atlas mark iv turnouts. I found out these will work. Almost freaked out with the money i spent on turnouts alone haha
 
Atlas have been "DCC friendly" since they stopped making the metal frogged turnout kits in the 1960's. Since then all of their turnouts, Cast metal frogged or not, have been dead frogs. Keep in mind "DCC Friendly" is a term the manufacturers came up with to distinguish between what used to be defined as either power routing turnouts, (or select control, where the power is switched thru the points, and which ever way the turnout is thrown determines which route gets power) and non-selective power (or continous control, where all routes thru the turnout are always powered, in these turnouts the frog is dead electrically).

DCC friendly is simply the industry's attempt to make it easier for modelers to understand what turnouts work best for DCC without confusing the issue. For some modelers, esp new ones, it just confuses the issue even more sometimes.
 
As CJ already said, they are already "DCC Friendly"....install as is and you will be good to go.

Pete, $50/sq. ft was low even when I started this layout 8 years ago. It is more like $100-150+, depending on your "likes" and amount of detailing. (Sorry for that update :( )
 
I plan on running dcc and im flipping thru my modelrailroader magazine and notice a add by walthers that says dcc friendly turnouts:
That whole DCC friendly thing for turnouts is mostly marketing hype. Way back when DCC was just making its way into common usage, there were some turnouts that had some issues. The old Shinohara (aka Walthers) was one of them. The issues were almost trivial, but they fixed them and discovered a new marketing term that people would respond to. Most turnouts or turnout brands have never had any problems.
 
the atlas custom line is DCC friendly because the metal frog is isolated, from what my friend told me that the walthers ones are not because they have power routing points, so you would have to modify them but the altas one are friendly without any mods,
 
Walthers Shinohara

The Walthers Shinohara turnouts are DCC Friendly. They are not "power routing", but feed power through to the diverging route at all times. Keep in mind that Shinohara makes turnouts to Walthers specifications which are DCC Friendly. They also make (did?) their own version.
 
Last edited by a moderator:



Back
Top