Shinohara

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Are the newer Shinohara code 70 HO standard-gauge turnouts “DCC Friendly?”

2

DCC friendly is more an advertising gimmick than anything else. Read Joe Fugate’s post on 10 years with DCC, I learned plenty there. I’m sure Joe can correct any mistakes in the following:

I have not looked at new Shinohara turnouts; I own several older ones. The older ones use what used to be “standard” turnout electrical practice. The two points are linked together with a metal throwbar, and the frog is powered by which ever point is touching its adjoining stock rail. The advantage was that if the switch was thrown against a spur, both rails on the spur would be of the same polarity, and nothing would run. This “feature” could be used to save block toggle switches and associated wiring in conventional DC.

The drawbacks of this design are:

  1. You had to have a good knowledge of how your layout electrical system worked to put some necessary gaps in place. Basically, anytime a frog could receive electricity from the diverging end of the turnout, there had to be an electrical gap somewhere between the frog and the feed point.
  2. Points touching stock rails are unreliable conductors of track power. Often a point wouldn’t make complete electrical contact with the stock rail, or the weight of trains running over the point would break the electrical contact. When this happens, the point, closure rail, and frog and frog rails are unpowered to the next electrical gap (and your train stalls).
  3. The back of a wheel riding on a stock rail might momentarily contact the adjoining (and opposite polarity) point rail, causing a momentary short circuit. This was pretty much resolved as wheels were manufactured to closer tolerances, and the distance between point rail and stock rail was increased slightly (which increases the throw distance to change the turnout direction).
  4. A train approaching a turnout from the frog end with the turnout set against it would cause a momentary short circuit if/when its metal wheels bridged the electrical gap in the frog rail.
3

To more directly answer your question - check the throwbar of the turnouts in question. If the throwbar is metal, or there is a metal link between the points at the throwbar, it is of the older design. The new, DCC-friendly turnout will have the points insulated from each other. Another visual indication of improved design is small gaps in the 4 rails extending from both ends of the frog.

Fred Wright

4

If I see one I’ll be able to tell. I’m thinking of ordering some but haven’t seen them - I was hoping someone who has bought some recently would be able to tell me. Thanks for the replies, though…