turnout on a curve
- Thread starter unkaboose
- Start date
What scale? Peco makes curved turnouts in HO in both Code 100 and Code 83, though they can be hard to find. Walthers Shinohara also do curved turnouts in Code 83. If you're using snap track these won't work because they have longer turnout radii (#8) than the standard snap track curves.
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
Check out Peco or Shinohara. This site is for MB Klein, but there are other on line retailers. I have absolutely no hobby shops in my area and I have been using them for quite a while and have always had great service from them.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=Peco+ho+track
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=shinohara+track
The radius on these turnouts are fairly broad, but both manufacturers do have the curved turnouts.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=Peco+ho+track
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=shinohara+track
The radius on these turnouts are fairly broad, but both manufacturers do have the curved turnouts.
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IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
I'll say "Aye" for modeltrainstuff.com as well. I've bought several Walthers-Shinohara curved turnouts from them over the years.
BTW - If your are using or planning to use DCC, make sure you get a DCC-friendly turnout. [I think they're also called "insulfrog" turnouts.]
BTW - If your are using or planning to use DCC, make sure you get a DCC-friendly turnout. [I think they're also called "insulfrog" turnouts.]
flyboy2610
Loveably weird
My local hobby shop owner, Randy, told me that power routing (elctrofrog) turnouts can be used IF the rails on the turnout are wired like a section of track AND the turnout is completely isolated from all other track. I haven't tried it, so I don't know if it works, but that what he said.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
"Insulfrog" is a registered trade name of Peco. Only Peco's can be Insulfrog. And it isn't the hot frog that makes turnouts NOT DCC friendly, I still don't know where anyone got that totally wrong idea. What makes a turnout Non-DCC friendly is if the points can make a contact with the "to rail" side a fraction of a second before they break with the "from rail" side. As far as I now the only turnouts in the category are the old Shinohara.
Turnouts with hot frogs like the Peco Electrofrog, need special wiring considerations REGARDLESS if the power is DC, AC, DCC, TCS or any other. Electricity is electricity and and short is a short. The extra considerations (gaps or insulated joiners) has NOTHING to do with DCC-friendlyness.
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Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Back to the main topic of this thread, do you know what size radii you need? The turnout on this layout has a 22"/18" radius Atlas curved turnout on it.
Peco makes one that is about 17 3/4" by 22.5" or so. If you can wait a few months Hornby will have theirs out. http://www.hornby.com/us-en/track/right-hand-curved-point.html
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if im measuring correctly its a 22 1/2 radiusBack to the main topic of this thread, do you know what size radii you need? The turnout on this layout has a 22"/18" radius Atlas curved turnout on it.
Peco makes one that is about 17 3/4" by 22.5" or so. If you can wait a few months Hornby will have theirs out. http://www.hornby.com/us-en/track/right-hand-curved-point.html
I have all Electrofrog Peco turnouts on my DCC layout and yes they have to be wired correctly but they work fine when you do.
You don't have to COMPLETELY isolate them - though that doesn't hurt.
What you should do is:
1. Cut/remove the two jumpers on the underside connecting the closure rails to the frog.
2. Power the frog via contacts on a switch machine or an electronic frog powering device, like a "Frog Juicer".
3. Isolate the two frog rails from the connected tracks - this can easily be done by using insulated rail joiners.
I also electrically connect the stock rails to the closure rails - on the underside of the turnout you can see gaps in the ties where Peco has left a space to connect the two rails together.
If you don't do this then you are relying on the point blades to make good contact with the stock rails - which often works fine - but I'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy.
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theres no reason to be calling Samuel Insull a frog................for those not in the know Samuel Insull was the Chicago Electric magnate on the North Shore/South Shore/Chicago Aurora and Elgin
Selector
Well-Known Member
Power routing does not mean that the frog is live....or not. It means that the turnout provides power BEYOND the frog based on the alignment of the points rails. The frog can then be live or dead, as the owner needs it to be. So, POWER ROUTING means a turnout, any turnout, that powers the rails beyond the frog so that a spur with a dead end can be made live simply by lining the points so that a locomotive can enter that spur. It will be a live spur as long as no other feeders go to it and as long as the points stay lined for that spur. Flick the points and your loco on the spur side of the frog will go dead along with the rails.
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
I've handlaid all my turnouts and they all have hot frogs. I've wired them all separately, all the rails are insulated from the rest of the layout. In over 10 years, I've never had a problem with them and DCC.
The club I was in years ago long before DCC they already knew the problems of turnouts even just operating DC. The club handlaid ALL of their turnouts except in the hidden yard when they used snap track atlas. Code 83 all the way, were talking 1980s, bub. The frogs were all rail (Electrofrog), turnouts laid out on PC ties, the points were ALWAYS the same polarity as the neighboring rail they closed to. The frog was always wired to these Selenoid/relays, push to throw it was a snap and hold relay. Turn off the power to the layout after a run session you could hear the SNAP CLICK SNAP of all the thrown turnouts falling back into their normal positions, that was by design, they layout would default into a normal operating setup. The group had some smart electrical guys in it.
