I have about a dozen Shinohara live frog switches on a small yard layout run on DC. Only one of these switches is driving me batty. With a voltmeter it shows to have correct juice at all points and I have cleaned it completely, but a reliable locomotive that does fine on all the other switches stops on that switch. What am I missing here? How could it be that it has juice and is clean yet a locomotive will not run over it without stopping. Thanks for any assistance on this. Jim
Just for testing, I can run the loco very fast through the switch and it'll make it through although a major hesitation.
Any vertical motion of the wheels as they go through the frog? Wobble? Does the problem occur in both directions? Both legs? All locos, or just one? Have you checked the gauge on the bad switch?
No wobble Rick. I can get one leg of the switch to work and the nonworking leg fails with multiple locos. With the switch set in the direction of the leg that doesn't work, my quality voltmeter shows correct juice at all points. Immediately after checking this voltage, I send the loco through and it stalls.
Finally got it to not stall the loco. All along I was using some pieces of appx. .010 plastic shim stock under the frog throw. So, I diddled with the shim and used a sprung manual switch throw to hold it as tight as possible in position and it worked. I'm still amazed that I could show good voltage and then the loco would stall. It must have been right on the edge of connection and as soon as the loco touched the switch that must have taken it out of contact. All along I also was using Never Stall. Thanks for the help.
you can read good voltage with your voltmeter. but as soon as something pulls a bit more amps (milliamps in your case) voltage might drop due to poor contact.
That is why you should measure track voltage (with your meter) when you have a load on the track. A sound locomotive will do. But, I prefer a light bulb connected to a couple of clip leads. Use a light bulb that draws a similar amount of current to your biggest locomotive lash-up, but a little higher.
It looks like you have it figured out. Just in case it continues to happen then consider the following option. The key to a number of hot frogs or electro-frog switches is: You need to isolate the two rails that lead away from the frog on the diverging or curved side of the switch. Your frog goes hot + or - based on the direction the points in the switch are aligned. You can short out your train, halting it, and then scratch your head for hours trying to figure it out. Try it. It has to do with the power in the tracks leading away from the switch. Sorry, BarstowRick.com is down or I'd refer you to illustrations I used there. If you go to the internet, How-To's you will find illustrations that explain how this works. Sorry, I can't use the store front's link, I'd like to send you to...... as that's not allowed here. Here's a hint, think Tony B. and his first name. If that helps.
Just an after thought. Despite the fact you may have your problem fixed. Depending on whether or not you are using Kato switches. They have a hot frog that is actually switched internally. You also need to isolate the rails leading away from the frog. Works best that way. Then I got to thinking asking self, self is that true with DCC? Afraid it is. Hope I'm not making a nuisance of myself.
