Turnout wiring (again)

[firetacoma]

I am using peco code 80 electro-frog turnouts. It seems from looking at them that they should work in stock form as long as I isolate the frog rails. Do I need to modify them in any other way? I have read wiringfordcc.com but still don't fully understand what I need to do to make them work.

argh.

 

[NYC_George]

switches

How many of these switches do you have? I own about ten of the old Walthers type which are almost the same I think and fixed them all, but you may not want to take the time. The simple way is to just isolate the frog and let the points control the current. They should then work but if the points do not make good contact with the rail you'll have problems. If you could upload a few photos top and bottom of the switch I'll know a little more on how they work and could maybe give you a better answer. If not a friend of mine may have a few I could look at.

NYC_George

 

[firetacoma]

I have 8 of the switches. I thought I was doing right by going for the electric frog version but now it seems I may have been wrong. They do claim to be power-routing so as long as the wheels don't short the frog it should be fine right?

Here are some pictures, hopefully not too blurry, my macro mode SUCKS.

 

[NYC_George]

Electro Frog

It's hard to see where the wires attach in the photo but I guess they work like the old Walthers switches.
If you just insolate the frog there won't be a short but you'll be depending on the points for track power. I have found on my layout that in this type of setup the points aren't very reliable some times although Peco has the spring so maybe they'll be OK. What I did with the Walthers switches was to put two plastic insulated rail joiners (peco are the best) on the end of the frog rails. Then I soldered a green wire to one of the frog rails and attached that to #4 pin out on the tortoise and the red and black track power wires to pins outs #2 and #3 or #3 and #2. You'll have to do a test to see which is which. Now you'll have the points and the track power going through the tortoise powering the frog a the same time. The tortoise's internal switch is rated at one amp. If there's a slight short when you throw the switch. Then the tortoise is changing the polarity while the points are still in contact with the rail. (Slow motion switch machine.) You'll have to make a slight adjustment with the piano wire. This is what I did and it works great. On another note the spring that holds the points against the rail in a Peco switch also makes using a tortoise a problem. I did write a thread on this problem last year some time.

NYC_George