Hey there. I’m new to the hobby and I’m workign on my first layout. This site has been a great deal of help. Just searchign these forums has a tonne of information. However I can’t really find any specifics about how to power a turnout. I’m using atlas customline turnouts and a tortoise switch machine. I’ve got the machines working now the question is how exactly do i power the frog. There’s a small hole by the frog so I’m assuming that i solder a wire to that but where does it go. For example terminals 2,3, and 4 would be used to power the frog. So which would go to the frog and the other two would go to the power? Also do you all use power packs to power the tortoise machines or is ripping apart an old dc adapter fine. I only have 6 turnouts on my layout. any help would be really appreciated. Thanks
NO!, do not try to solder the frog. It is some sort of zinc alloy. It will just result in melting all the plastic around it. Instead tap the hole for a 1-72 screw and use that to connect the wire to. I actually solder the wire to a 1-72 washer and put that on the screw.
4 would go to the frog. 2 and 3 to track power.
An old DC adapter is fine if it has enough current output to handle the six tortoise. Specs say 16 ma so 16 x 6 = 96 mA. I think almost any DC adapter should be able to handle that.
I’ve used 2-56 brass screws too. I have more of them than #1s. You might want to use a pilot drill first - I didn’t and the frog tapped just fine.
Karl
A short brass screw & wire (soldered) to the Tortoise’s specified frog contacts should give you reliable continuity. Tap the hole to match the threaded screw and feed from 12V. DC power. TORTOISE, and other motor type machines require DC.
If you are planning to use the AC terminals on a Power pack, a BRIDGE RECTIFIER is suggested (say 24 volt 1 Amp) to covert the AC to DC.
SOME of us use a separate 12V supply for both switch machines and indicator lights. (See separate threa, and Randy Rinkers post of 2 days ago).
If you only run diesels or the newer steam power you should be able to skip hooking up the frogs altogether. Diesels and the newer steam stuff have enough electrical pickups to bridge the frogs. For me, it would’ve been overkill; nothing has stalled on a frog yet. I even have an old Athearn Hustler that also goes thru every turnout without any prob. My turnouts are both Atlas (Snap & Custom Line) & Peco (electrofrog and non) and a few Shinnohara.
Run some units and see how the go thru the turnouts, if they don’t stall, then why bother with the extra work? Plenty of other things to do. Jay.