I just came into possession of a PECO n-guage code 55 double crossover with two straight tracks, one one each side, obviously. It electrofrog so assistance with wiring is requested.
While this article doesn’t specifically talk about double crossovers, it does discuss PECO turnouts and what is necessary to power them and to avoid shorts.
https://railwaybobsmodulebuildingtips.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-peco-electrofrog-circuitry.html
Good luck! Let us know how you come out.
I have wired double crossovers before, But mine were Walthers Shinohara Code 83, and the frogs were plastic, so they were isolated and “dead” like Peco Insulfrogs. In that instance, I simply needed to wire all four ends of the double crossover.
Your Peco Electrofrog double crossover presents a different challenge. It requires gapping, special wiring and frog juicing.
Let’s start with the gapping. You say that you “came into possession” of the double crossover. Is it used? Is it already gapped? Where are the gaps and how many gaps are there?
Rich
Thanks for responding. I brought the track in Europe at a severe discount from what US stores were selling it. I have not even opened the package. I follow Charlie Bishop on YouTube and he has demonstrated wiring a “double slip” track but not one with a straight rail option. I’m leaning towards Cobalt -SS surface mount switch motors and the controlling boards will enable coordinated switch activity and frog polarity changes. I also hope to eventually use Digitrax signal systems to indicate switch positions, also an option on these switch control boards.
I know that I have to isolate the frogs if not already isolated and wire the frog to the correct switch.
It will take four switch motors and two control boards to operate this one piece of track, so there goes my savings.
I was just wondering if anyone out there had experience with such a thing.
Thanks again
Mark
Thanks. I’ve printed it out.
Mark
I made up a track diagram using an image of a Peco N scale double crossover.
You will need to gap 16 spots to completely isolate the four frogs. Twelve of the spots are colored dark Blue, and the remaining four are colored Purple.
The rails are colored Green and Red for polarity. The two stock rails (A and D) never change polarity. One rail will always be Green and the other rail will always be Red. Likewise, rails B,C,E and F) never change polarity.
That leaves the cross over section to deal with. A Gold line covers the two frogs in the cross over section. The entire cross over section is bordered in light Blue. Inside this cross over section, the Gold line divides the section into upper and lower halves. These polarities may be reversed depending upon the route selected (straight thru or cross over).
If a straight thru route is selected, the upper half of the cross over must match the polarity of rails B and E. The lower half of the cross over must match the polarity of rails C and F.
If a crossover route is selected, the polarity of the upper half and the lower half must be reversed.
That leaves the two cross over frogs to deal with.
The polarity of each of those two frogs must match the route crossover route selected, of which there are four possibilities. This will require some form of device like a frog juicer to detect the required polarity.
Rich
Thank you! This took a lot of work. I appreciate how complicated this was going to be.
I’ll touch base again if I have any questions when I am doing the wiring.
Mark
Cutting the gaps are key and should be done first.
The objective is to totally isolate the frogs and to isolate the cross over section.
I would suggest that before cutting the gaps you mark the spots where you intend to make the cuts, take a photo, and run it by us. You could use a Magic Marker or Sharpie or even a dab of white paint.
Once you do cut the gaps, you can wire the individual rail segments.
Keep us posted.
Rich
Thanks, I will. It’s too expensive piece of track to screw up.
Yes, it is.
Rich