I'm building a small 28"x80" HCD layout. I'd like to wire it for blocked DC operation with a thought of DCC in the future. My track plan is just a figure 8 mainline (elevated/no crossover) with a couple of dead end branch lines and a siding leading to a small 3 track stub yard. I'd like to use the Peco sprung turnouts but don't want to spend my remaining golden years wiring electrofrog turnouts. I've been reading about them for two days now and am even more confused than when I started. The insulfrog turnouts seem to be plug and play. Just stick them in the track plan with no frog rail insulation, jumpers, or extra feeders. The down side seems to be compromised performance of small switchers and steam engines over the frog. Someone said that electrofrog wiring/frog rail insulation is only necessary when the turnout frog sides (trailing sides) face each other as in a siding. If this is true, I could install electrofrog turnouts everywhere on my layout (dead end sidings, yard ladder stubs) without doing anything to them(no frog rail insulation, no jumpers, no extra feeders). The pair of turnouts frog facing each other on the siding would have to be frog rail insulated with a power feeder between them. Do I have this right or should I just install the insulfrogs and be done with it? Thanks, Kim
Hi Kim. 1. My advice is to never use insulated frogs on an N scale layout, no matter what the size. You will regret it sooner or later. N scale engines just don't have the mass (weight) to maintain perfect electrical contact if some wheels are on a dead area of track (the frog on an insulated frog turnout). Yes, you might be fine with SD70-sized six axle power, but if you are going to use switchers or first (or even second) generation hood diesels with four axles and shorter wheelbases, or small steam, you are simply asking for serious trouble using insulated frog turnouts. 2. Wiring electrofrog turnouts isn't very difficult. The basic rule is to feed power "behind" the turnout (e.g., behind the single track portion) and use insulated rail joiners at the diverging ends. Technically, you only need to use insulated joiners on the rails coming from the frog, but it's easier to insulate all the rails. Then you provide separate power feeds to the track that follows the frog. That's it. It's not hard to follow that rule, and if you follow it, you will never get into trouble. It is possible to make things more complicated, but there is not any reason to. When you install an electrofrog turnout, just put 4 insulated rail joiners on the diverging track ends, put regular metal joiners on the single-track "entry" end, and always feed power from the entry end and after the insulated joiners. You may end up with more track feeders than technically necessary, but so what. Some extra track feeders are probably a good thing overall. 3. There are some folks who argue that Peco electrofrogs need modification to use successfully with DCC. But I used Peco electrofrogs for 10 years on two different layouts using DCC WITHOUT modifying the turnouts in any way, shape or form. I still use them on our club layout without modification and DCC power. There are some technical reasons why some people recommend modification, but I would advise ignoring them. The truth is that if you have correctly-gauged wheels, you will almost certainly have no issues whatsoever using Peco electrofrogs unmodified with DCC. 4. One issue that DOES sometimes occur with Peco turnouts is that the gauge between the frog and guardrail is too narrow; this will sometimes allow wheels that are exactly set to NMRA gauge to "slide" too far over and pick the point of the frog, derailing the wheels. If you find you have this problem, an easy fix is to glue a strip of .010 x .060 styrene to the plastic guardrail, thus "tightening" the gauge between the guardrail and the frog (then paint the styrene brown to match the guardrail). When I used Peco turnouts, I did this as a matter of course before installing the turnout. I would recommend it; it takes about one minute to do this using strip styrene from Evergreen and some liquid plastic cement. But you can install the turnouts "as is" and see if you have any problems. You might not (many locomotives come from the factory with the wheel gauge just a tad narrow, which works fine with the Peco tolerances), and if you do have any issues, you can always add the styrene shims later. Don't overthink this. Follow Rule #2, and you'll be fine. John C.
Thanks for the very detailed reply John. I will follow your advice and use the electrofrog turnouts. Since I won't have any return loops, wyes, or cross overs, I don't think polarity will be a problem. Kim
I use both electrofrogs and insulfrogs in HO scale though so i don't know how useful my observations are for N scale. No modifications here either with the exception of some jumpers added on insulfrogs for improving electrical continuity (which is something that one can do without). The benefit of electrofrogs is that the frog area has no black plastic (insulfrongs have) but i suppose if that bothers you, you could easily paint these silver on an insulfrog. The other benefit is operation for short wheel-base locomotives. I can't comment on this, since my shortest locomotive is a GP9. The benefit for insulfrogs is that you do not need to use insulated joiners. Based on my experience, this can become very useful if a curve follows immediately after the turnout and you want to solder all track joiners in order to prevent kinks on the rails. Having said that, i think i have the same situation with electrofrogs somewhere, without any issues, i just needed more attention when laying/securing the track.
