Shinohara "DCC Friendly" Turnouts

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Hi Guys,

Just when I thought I really understood the electrical part of this hobby I received a “DCC Friendly” turnout when I ordered another turnout to create another siding. I must tell you that I don’t have DCC yet. I’m using DC, with block control. I applied power to the “points” end of the turnout and noticed that because of the little “feeders” under the turnout, both legs of the turnout are hot (carry the + and - from the point end). With my other turnouts, I fed wires from my Tortoise switch machine to the frogs of the turnout, thus, the turnout was what people refer to as “power routing”. With these new “DCC Friendly” turnouts, I guess there are 2 issues. One, I shouldn’t have to run wires from my Tortoise to route power and two, the frog is not powered because it is isolated with plastic. Other than having problems with short engines getting stuck on the frog (actually I don’t think any of my engines should have this problem), am I missing something. Again, am I correct that I shouldn’t run the power-routing wires from the Tortoise to the turnout?

In looking again at the turnout, I realized that I couldn’t route power the way I did with my other turnouts because I soldered those wires from the Tortoise to the turnout, ahead of the frog and because the frog wasn’t isolated, it allowed the power to route through to the 2 legs of the turnout. So, if I need to solder wires from the Tortoise, they would have to be behind the frog. I must sound really stupid here because I think the answer is that no wires from the Tortoise are necessary, unless those little feeders under the “DCC Friendly” turnouts are not reliable. Anybody know if they are reliable?

Another problem I just thought about. If the turnout isn’t power routing, then if I’m in the siding with an engine and another train needs to go buy, I can’t just throw the turnout to the main and have my engine sit there on the siding unless I make

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Happy reading.

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches.htm#a1

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As for the last part, you could put insulated rail joiners between the turnout and your siding, and then route the power for that “block” thru the Tortoise, so that the power only went to the siding when the switch was thrown to allow trains in or out of the siding.

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Mondo, if you are talking about the Walthers’ Shinohara turnouts then you can look at them electrically as a straight piece of track, i.e. your power runs straight through regardless of position and no feeders or switches are necessary. If you prefer to isolate the straight or diverging route, then you can always add insulated joiners and route power through your Tortoise. As far as the dead frog issue, I run my S1 and SW switchers back and forth without problem.

The jumpers underneath are spot welded onto the bottom of the rails. I had problems with the first release of turnouts when these welds would come loose. However, I haven’t had any problems with any of the later made turnouts (last 18 months). You still should be careful with them and if you trim the lengths of the turnouts, be careful to leave enough room for the joiner. I have poped the welds by not leaving enough room and the joiner broke the weld loose.

REX

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Thanks to both Stix and Rex. Hey Rex, thanks for the heads up on those connectors. I will be careful if I have to cut down the turnout.

Thanks again guys,

Mondo