Reliable Turnouts


cgw44

New Member
Been out of MR'ing for 25 yr's and want to build a small HO switching layout using DC - no interest in DCC.

The one thing that used to annoy me most was short wheelbase loco's [ sw's s-2's 44ter's] stalling on atlas switch frogs at slow speed.
I know that you can juice the frogs by wiring them but am not interested in doing that if I can get turnouts that have live frogs.
From what I can see it looks like peco electrofrog and kato are the only choices for what I'm looking for.

Any opinions?
 
On the basis of what you have set out as limits for yourself, you are correct. Well....you could also make your own turnouts. Maybe it's time to look at that possibility? Unless you simply don't want all that work...
 
On the basis of what you have set out as limits for yourself, you are correct. Well....you could also make your own turnouts. Maybe it's time to look at that possibility? Unless you simply don't want all that work...
I don't want to do all that work. I'm just looking for reliable turnouts that have powered frogs that loco's won't stall on in DC.
 
Looks like peco may be the way to go. How does peco track in general compare to atlas in appearance. I used atlas track before but never peco.
Depends upon if you are talking about code 100 or code 83 track. The code 100 works well between Peco and Atlas. Peco turnouts are actually European style, but I can't tell that anyone really notices. I use them all the time.

Peco code 83 track is North American style, but (if I recall properly off the top of my head) there is a bit of a variation in the tie height and web profile that makes joining them to Atlas a bit more difficult but definitely possible.

Finally it looks like you already know that Peco makes two types of turnouts. Insulfrog which would behave electrically like the modern Atlas, and Electrofrog which have hot frogs (and behave like the Altas from the 1950s). Depending on the track arrangement, the electrofrog might require insulated rail joiners and additional power feeders.
 



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