I have more than one Atlas Code 83 turnout that the frogs are “hopping up”. I am running heavy steam (weight wise) and it is working the frogs loose in their mounts.
Has anybody else had this problem?
I fixed a bunch when I was building the layout by removing them and using CA to reset them. Is there a better way.
Question Part II:
I am not adverse to pulling all the Atlas and going to ? brand. I am all Tortoise so that is a given.
THank you!
P.S. I remember being told on the forum NOT to use Atlas [banghead]
Peco or Shinohara are what I have begun to use where my handlaid #8’s won’t work. These two types work very well, no problems anywhere.
George, why don’t you innerduce yerself to Fast Tracks and get some real turnouts? Start with one, then another over a few weeks and months, and before long you will have a wonderful collection of reusable turnouts of the highest quality. Just for the frogs, alone, are these worth everything it takes.
Crandell
Edit - Oh, about that frog, something very solid and either too wide/narrow, or too low, is making a real solid hit on it during the traverse. Could be one of the middle driver flanges, a screw backed out on the underframe, you name it. Must be at a good clip, too.
A long thin screw like 2-56 x 1". This assumes the sub-roadbed is something like plywood that will hold a screw. Obviously if it is a foam base this would not be a solution.
One of the club members is building them for his layout (1,160 of them, that is NOT a mis print) he is offering to make me all the #6 I need just by the parts. I may rake him up on that.
His layout is going to something to see. His space is 45 ft by 136 ft. He is building the B&O Baltimore to Cumberland Md section at the EXACT lengths in 1/87. Including all the elevations, buildings and 1160 turnouts. His Baltimore with the yards and harbor are bigger than my layout!
I hav eone that came loose when I put a brass screw in the hole and tried to solder a wire to it. I put a few drops of CA on the bottom and put a weight on it. So far, so good.
That is what I remembered when we started this FROG thing way back when.
I did the worst one tonight and ran the H8 over it with no problem at all. Guess I will glue as required and file the frogs deeper. I am still finding some that are closer to code 55 than 83. Then on the other side one was about code 120, fiked that down and it is nice now.
IF I am dumb enough to build phase two I will use the hand laid route for the turnouts and will use the Atlas for the flex again since I have 200 ft in stock.
Thanks Randy.
Off topic, What is a good starting point for speed stabilization? I am using decoder pro like you.
If the frog it level with the surrounding rail and it still bumps, I wonder if they still use flanges that are a bit to big. Or you might have wheels out of gauge. The only real bumps I get are runnign some older equipment - my father in law has some old AHM/Rivarossi GG1’s witht he pizza cutter flanges, the JUMP on code 83 frogs, and buzz down the rest of the track because the flanges hit the spike details ont he code 83 flex track.
As for adjusting the multitude of BEMF parameters - that’s probably something best done in ops mode. There are a few suggestions int he Digitrax decoder manual for starting points. I’m thinking the absolute best way to set up a decoder for true crawling action is to first figure out at what DC voltage the motor starts at (straight DC, not through the decoder), with only the load of the working motion - ie, in a cradle with the wheels elevated, not on the track. Set CV2 accordingly, so speed step 1 delivers this minimum voltage, with BEMF turned off. With no load, the wheels should probably start to turn, but with the loco on the track, mostlikely it will not move. Now start adjusting the BEMF until it finally begins to move under load. With a train coupled it will probably need a bit more BEMF to move the additional load.
I haven’t tried all this yet - not he DC start voltage part. I juust set to speed step 1 and adjust the BEMF parameters until it runs like I want. For Digitrax the suggestions in the decoder manual are pretty good as far as what to look for when you adjust the parameters. You don’t want the loco to jerk between speed steps - if you have the settings too high you can really see that, you dial one speed step higher and the loco jerks back and forth like a spring as it accelerates to the next speed. Really wierd looking. I din’t really know much about setting others, the ony other decoder I have with BEMF is the ESU Loksound in my T-1, and I tried fiddling with the default setings in small increments and never g