The curved turnouts have really long frogs. I have a DCC friendly Walthers turnout, but it is not the current production. I also have a couple Atlas curved turnouts.
If I recall correctly, the Atlas wiring ring that connects to the frog does not take solder well and needs a brass screw to solder a feed to. Is the Walther the same non solderable ring?
Some of the longer Atlas frogs have a brass eye secured to the frog. These take solder very well. The shorter Atlas frogs, where the ‘eye’ is right alongside the frog itself, are Zamac or ‘pot-metal’ and do not. These benefit from tapping the eye and threading a brass screw into the eye so a wire can be soldered to the screw.
Atlas_TO1 by Edmund, on Flickr
All my ‘Walthers’ turnouts are manufactured by Shinohara and I do not have any of their redesigned ones. I solder a feeder wire directly to one of the wing rails of the frog.
Frog-wire by Edmund, on Flickr
The redesigned Walthers turnout has a better arrangerment for wiring the frog similar to the Atlas ‘ring’ shown above. I can’t imagine they made it out of a material that is difficult to solder. It looks like it might be the same material as the rail itself.
https://www.trains.com/mrr/how-to/walthers-ho-scale-turnouts-debut-with-dcc-friendly-features/
Good Luck, Ed
Any luck soldering to those eyes, Henry?
Just curious, Ed
Thanks Ed. I have not tried. The Wathers ring looks brass. My Atlas looks tin?
Which Atlas and Walthers turnouts, they have made many types over the years, especially Atlas.
The Atlas turnouts that have the cast (pot metal?) frog have a tab with a hole to accommodate attaching a wire. Tapping for a brass screw would certainly work.
In my experience, the frog will not accept a soldered joint, but I found that pushing a wire through the hole from the bottom, then bending the wire tip down and back through the top of the hole - the idea is to make a “knot” in the wire so it can’t be easily pulled out through the bottom of the hole. Then touch the knot with a bit of solder which fills any gaps. This makes a secure mechanical connection for the frog wire, and is less noticeable than the screw.
Jim
I have two of the new Walthers code 83 switches that I installed as a crossover. The frog power wire soldered easily to the provided tab. However when I tried to run through the crossover I found that out of the four pieces of rail that make up the frog only one was powered. I had to pull up the track and solder a wire to the other pieces of rail.
This in addition to the fact that when I opened the packages the pieces that are supposed to hold the points in position fell out onto the floor.
Mark
Put the brass screw in from the bottom of the frog and paint the exposed end. Then it won’t be noticeable at all.
Walthers: 948-8826 6.5 left hand curved
Atlas: 596 curved right
I bought the Atlas a year or so before Covid. I don’t remember buying the Walther but it probably came from Timonium, also also before Covid. It is labeled DC - DCC ready.