I recently received two turnouts for my HOn3 tracks from Aspenmodel. These have the left and right rail joined at the frog, i.e. the centerpiece. As they are, I consider these turnouts unusable. There is a piece of wire soldered to the center from underneath. So I assume the idea is to put some insolating rail joiners at the ends of the forking rails, and then to supply current via that cable and a switch to the insulated parts? That would definitely not be very feasible for a temporary layout as I intend to use these turnouts for. I compared them to some other turnouts. Several show a cut in the rails just past that frog. However, I own two On3 PSC turnouts (with wooden ties) that I have never used, and they also do not have an insulation. Nor do they have a piece of wire attached to them. So what how are these meant to function without shorting the system?
I'm not sure I'm correctly visualizing what you're saying, but they may be non-power routing, meaning that they're for use with DCC. Cutting the wires may make them power routing, but you'd have to check with the manufacturer to be sure. My Kato Unitrack HO turnouts have screws that mount on the bottom. You change their positions to short or not short the rails so that they can be configured as either power routing or non-power routing.
I am not sure I understand the term power routing. I assume it means you have current according to the direction the turnout is set to. I have many such Roco turnouts on my HO layout. But it still requires some point of insulation of the rails. This is usually built into the turnout already. That would be the same as polarized turnout, if I translate the term straight from German. Not sure whether it is used in English, though. I am not familiar with DCC, however.
Yes, that is what power routing means. DCC doesn't benefit from power routing, as DC does. As I don't speak any other languages, I always admire people working through technical information in their second or third language.
If your layout works with DC, it will work with DCC too! There's only one point. With DC a short will last only a short time when the wheels contact the wrong rail. But with DCC a short will shut down your booster. Wolfgang
Thanks, that is just one reason why I have never warmed up to DCC. But the main reason is that I love detailing engines. And that concerns primarily the outside, not the electical parts. The only thing I do is covering up or removing some head lights or tail lights in order to have only the front unit lighted. And sometimes, I try to add ditch light where the model is missing them.
Thanks, Jose, that goes quite a ways farther than what I want my HOn3 layout for. I try to keep the electical part as simple as possible as the temporary layout is supposed to be set up and removed again within just a few minutes each time. My main HO and N layouts have hardly been altered the last 15 years, on the other hand. Needless to say they are straight DC only.
If I understand your description correctly, the moveable points, closure rails (joining the points to the frog) and the frog are all connected together. When the turnout is set for the straight route, the points contact the curved stock rail and the wole assembly would assume that polarity. TWhere a short would ocurr would be if a wheel bridged the gap between the straight stock rails and the open point. This is a classic "power routing" turnout where the curved route would have both rails at the same electrical potential. As others have stated, this is not usually a problem in DC operation since voltages are typically low (especially with slow speed runing), and the loco can coast through it. In DCC, voltages are alway on and high (12-14 V), so the impact of a short is greater. The standard remedy is do gap the closure rails before the frog and connect the closure rails and points to the adjacent stock rail. You then power the frog separately throught point motor contacts. This applies to DC as well as DCC. If you don't get shorts with DC, you should be OK with DCC as well. Just be sure your booster shutdown function works properly. BTW, modular groups such as NTRAK and Free-mo set up temporary layouts all the time with DCC with no problems.
I found two pictures on the San Juan Car Co website San Juan Car Company Latest News for their upcoming On3 switches. They have the same construction priciple. That is, no actual frog. Instead, the "frog" area is made up using the rails themselves. But I think they have a cut or gap (not visible here*) in the two central stock rails that seem joined here at the frog. Thus, there is really just the frog area that is either powerless or power routed. But without such a cut/gap or another insulation, the short is permanent. *That website shows a third picture where the gap to the left of the frog seems just barely visible.
Helpful phone call I have since had a phone call from the manufacturer of these Aspenmodel tracks. He is really a good guy, giving interesting, practical, and very sound advice. Though I am not sure whether he could do this in English as well. We had our discussion in our native German. With respect to these turnouts, it is as I suspected; the isolation is meant to be done at the end of the turnout, with the frog and the adjacent rails being fed via the provided wire used to power-route the switch. As this is not what I want to do for my intended temporary layouts, I will add a gap next to the frog. However, as the rails are kind of glued (vulcanized as he said) to the bedding, one has to be careful as to not overheat the metal (and thus the glue) when cutting. I think I should be able to do this now thanks to the specific instructions I got. Any specific wishes can be fulfilled if the manufacturer knows it in advance. In my case it was just that he did not know the specific application I wanted, and I had no idea about his flexibility. Just one detail here: I casually mentioned that I was at the limit regarding lowest radius I could use. So he suggested one could order sectional curved tracks with a slightly enlarged gauge. That would allow the engines to run through the narrow curves more easily.
