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| Insulfrog Vs Electrofrog points - Hints & Tips - Reference Area. - Your Model Railway Club | ||||||||||
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charliebishop Full Member 
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https://youtu.be/2kZbfOwe0_E Regards Charlie |
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BCDR Moderator 
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Hi Charlie, Nice tutorial. Anything with a wheelbase shorter than the frog will stall on insulfrogs, for anything longer they run just as well as electrofrogs (usually, see below). Where they are From memory 7/8" is less than the wheelbase of a Hornby 0-4-0 (I could be wrong, none to hand, although my 48xx is 1.25"), you did remember to remove the plastic insulators from the rails? Or did you not bother as you were only using the exit side? The latter I suspect. All of the Peco code 100 turnouts have issues in their now very old design (sleeper size and spacing, FB rail, chairs, pressed point rails, over-wide point rail-stock rail spacing, overwide frog and check rail spacing, common frog angles across different radii), it's not just the frogs. Most modelers happily ignore them, I lean towards the school that says if you spend £150-£200 on a highly detailed locomotive run it on track of the same standard. Members of the HO modular group I belong to like Peco insulfrogs over electrofrogs, more reliable, matches Atlas HO flex track, and this is 100% DCC sound operation. Not one 0-4-0 in sight though. Slow speed in DCC is of the order of a couple of feet per minute, that is when the problems really start to appear. Nigel Edits in red after Jeff's post below. Mea culpa. Insulfrogs can short across the frog rails where they meet the plastic frog (and where the design calls for narrowing of the rails where they meet the frog), As long as modern wheel sets are used and the BTB is correct there is not usually a problem. I have some old coffee-grinder brass locomotives with treads that would put a steam roller to shame and a less than optimal BTB, crossing an insulfrog is always an adventure usually accompanied by shouts of protest as the DCC power closes down and sound is lost from the other 5 or 6 locomotives. Both Insulfrogs and Electrofogs benefit from some additional work, irrespective of whether you use DC or DCC. Unmodified Electrofrogs have a very unprototypical spacing between the point blades and the stock rails to accommodate the power routing design and the when designed wide wheel tread, as well as the usually narrow BTB found on older locomotives. This spacing is not necessary with modern wheels and a correct BTB of 14.5mm, especially if the power-routing is eliminated. Plenty of advice on the web or on this site about how to do this. Nothing complicated, mostly rewiring and cutting through rails. ____________________ ©Nigel C. Phillips |
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charliebishop Full Member
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Hi Nigel, you have some very valuable points (excuse the pun). I only hope that Peco's new bullhead rail points, come down in price once they are established in the market place. Regards Charlie | |||||||||
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BCDR Moderator
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Hi Charlie, Peco points have their good as well as bad points. The point is that they can be made into very good points using some of the pointers on the web. Most modelers are happy to point their locomotives at the points without getting the point. Others just do not get the point about the points. I've raised the point about the points several times on this very topic. I switched over several years ago to hand built points. (Do I get any points for the number of points?). Nigel ____________________ ©Nigel C. Phillips |
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SRman Member 
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BCDR wrote: Hi Charlie,There should not be shorts across the frogs on electro-frog points because the whole frog and rails from the 'Vee' are the same polarity - there should always be insulating joiners at the ends of the 'Vee' anyway. On the other hand, I used to get a problem with the old insul-frog diamond crossing with some over-wide wheels (on a Wrenn Brighton Belle unit) where anything stored on the cross-line would creep as the train passed over the frog and briefly energised the rails for the other unit. ____________________ Jeff Lynn, Amateur layabout, Professional Lurker, Thread hijacker extraordinaire |
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BCDR Moderator
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Hi Jeff, Quite right, that's what the insulators are for. I'll correct the above. The issue is with insulfrogs and old stock shorting across the frog rails just prior to the frog. Another argument for using electrofrogs. Nigel ____________________ ©Nigel C. Phillips |
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charliebishop Full Member
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It strikes me that it's a bit of a pointed remark. However, I take your point and I'm not going to get "crossover" it. Regards Charlie |
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Longchap Full Member 
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I think it might turn out, that you two are talking about the same thing. Bill ____________________ At 6'4'', Bill is a tall chap, then again, when horizontal he is rather long and people often used to trip over him! . . . and so a nickname was born  |
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BCDR Moderator
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Hi Charlie, Time we took Bill's point and switched to another track. Nigel ____________________ ©Nigel C. Phillips |
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SRman Member
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You seem pretty switched on, Nigel! ;)
____________________ Jeff Lynn, Amateur layabout, Professional Lurker, Thread hijacker extraordinaire |
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| This is topic ID = 15504 Current time is 05:34 pm |
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