Due to a lack of funds I had to compromise and but Atlas N-scale code 80 turnouts for my layout instead of Peco code 80 turnouts. One thing I am noticing is that when a train rolls through a turnout it is being lifted up as it rolls through the frogs. It is not a problem with diesels, but with my steam engines its another story. What I was wondering is has anyone out there done anything to grind out the bottom of the plastic frogs so it doesn’t lift up the flanges anymore? Any help on this matter would be appreciated.
Thanks,
1. Go to your LHS and buy a NMRA Gauge.
2. Go to the NMRA website and learn how to use your Gauge.
3. Gauge your wheels.
4. Gauge your turnouts keeping special attention to the guard rail/frog dimension (span/flange-way).
5. Enjoy your better tracking trains.
There is no way around this. You have to Gauge everything that rolls on your layout. All turnouts that are available commercially are out of gauge one-way-or-another. The critical part of the turnout is always the Frog area.
David B
What brand of engine is doing this? Take a look at the depth of the flanges. Some engines (and rolling stock, too) have what we call “pizza cutter” wheels, with very pronounced flanges. These will ride up on frogs and sometimes even on tie-plates if they are too big.
But, get that NMRA gauge anyway.
The new Model Power 4-4-0/2-6-0. bachmann spectrum heavy 4-8-2, and the Kato 2-8-2, none of these engines have big pizza cutters like older n-scale but they are still being lifted. I actually filed some plastic out of the guardrail of one turnout and it seemed to help.
I’m not sure if the N scale Atlas turnouts have a similar problem, but some of my HO scale code 83 turnouts had a high frog. The flangeways were fine, and all of my locos, steam or diesel, would traverse them flawlessly. However, when a friend visited with a bunch of brass steamers, most stalled on certain turnouts. The problem was traced to frogs whose tops were higher than the other rails, and was easily corrected by little work with a mill file. Not all of the turnouts, though, had this problem.
Wayne