I’m brand new at model railroading and building my first layout …it’s horseshoe shaped with basically 3 - 4 x 8 plywood covered in 1/2 inch foam w/ homemade benchwork.I have 2 mainlines and several spurs .Mostly peco insulfrog turnouts but I have 1 single shinohara right hand single crossover turnout.(at this point all turnouts are hand thrown)I’m using an old tyco power pack just for testing track and locomotives and every time I throw the single crossover to the other mainline all power dies and restarts when I switch it back. Could someone please explain why this is shorting out … maybe explain it like I’m a 6 year old . Would another single crossover going the other way balance it out ?
Sounds like you need to isolate the diverging rails on the switch from the layout rails. The diverging rails are the curved rails leaving the switch.
Shinohara turnouts are power routing. That means the points get their power from the stock rail that they are in contact with.
The have live frogs
The frogs get their power from the point rails and send it to both frog rails. That’s a polarity problem with the incoming (other track) rails connecting to the frog rails. Therefore you need the above mentioned insulated joiners.
Yeah, but the link South Penn provided is for Transition joiners for code 100 to 70.
It would also help if the OP could get a photo of His track plan to view, to make sure He’s not dealing with a reverse loop. Also what code track He is using before suggestions of what code insulated joiners He need’s. If My memory serves Me correctly, the Shinohara crossover may be code 100.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Fixed the link.