Hi fellow modelers can someone please set me straight i am just starting to build a quite large layout for DCC operation can anyone please advise which are the best turnouts to use is it Electrofrog or is it insulfrog have tried to get some answers down here but not much luck Help?cheers NZKID50.
You may want to try posting this on the Electronics/DCC forum to get a faster answer. Good luck. I think most people are going to point you to Peco Electro-Frog turnouts.
Nope, go for the Insulfrogs.
David B
to back up David, I have been using DCC since 1999 and Dynatrol command control before that for 10 years. Most of my switches are insulfrog and they work just fine.
Bob
You might find these sites helpful:
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Wiring+for+DCC
Not sure what code or bradn you are useing but for Code 100, I have Atlas to be the best out of the box with the best price. I have close to 50switches on mine and a bunch ued at my club and we never have had a problem.
Oh it escapes me though what “kind of” of switch they are though.
There is a range in quality and price between the most basic and those that are really very nice and even extremely close to scale. For the sake of simplicity, I will add my voice to the very nice Peco Insulfrog Code 83. They have metal frogs and the switch points are kept positively to each side by an over-centre spring.
Some of us have taken strongly to building our own turnouts out of rail stock and PCB ties using the Fast Tracks system. Joe Fugate has a an excellent hybrid that he has created out of Central Valley kits and has used some of the Fast Tracks methods. Proto 87 makes very nice turnouts, but I have never seen, used, or priced them.
If you want readily available and very reliable turnouts, get the Peco Code 83 Streamline insulfrog variety. They work very well.
[#oops] Just goes to show you how much I know about DCC. LOL, after re-reading that it makes sense to do insul-frogs.
Here’s my attempt at helping answer this question.
The short answer is to prefer insulfrog since they’re easier to install and maintain. Electrofrog should have extra contacts installed outside the turnout to route the power since relying on the points to route the power to the frog long-term is not recommended. The points will get dirty and power routing will become unreliable.
Electrofrog turnouts will result in more shorts when people run a turnout they’ve forgotten to throw. Shorts on a DCC layout are bad and you should work to minimize how often they happen. Insulfrog turnouts will help you minimize shorts.
So check out the link above, I explain things in more detail there.
Some locomotives will stall on track switches with a dead frog. (Croak! Oh, that’s right, that is what live frogs say.) My choice is a live frog.
Mark
Ditto !!
Given that insulfrog (dead frog) turnouts are easier to install and maintain, you should try dead frog turnouts first. If your locos won’t run over a dead frog without stalling, then go to live frog. If you must do live frog turnouts, consider putting an 1156 auto tail light in series with the frog feeder so a short on the frog won’t damage anything or shut down a DCC layout.
Most modern all-wheel pickup locos work fine with dead frog turnouts. Only the shortest wheelbase locos (under 35 scale feet) may have a problem.
IMO, the default should be dead frog, and you should only go to live frog if you find that you must. Testing the two kinds of turnouts with your locos will tell you if dead frogs will work for you.
MARK:
Turmout’s with ‘LIVE FROGS’ don’t work on DCC. They ‘SHORT’.
Older designs, (or locomotives with limited electrical wheel pickup), falter on Insulated ‘dead’ frogs.
Joe:Josel:Guiseppi:
I too have had good results with switch kits (Anderson, BK, & old Atlas [like CVT mit fibre ties). These all also had ‘continuous’ point-rails.
ln studying the CVT kits, the frogs appear to need cutting for DCC. If so…
- WHERE DO YOU SPIKE the (newly cut) point-rails? 2. Does the ‘tortioning’ that occurs inhibit freedom of point movement, long term alignment, or are you using all #8’s, 10’s?
One inquiring mind wants to know.
I am running DCC only and removed all my atlas turnouts for Peco insulfrog turnouts I got two positive results.
-
No more shorts on DCC locomotives, even the Trix and Brawa locomotives do not short out.
-
Large steam has no issue on derailing on the peco turnouts.
I have also added turtoise motors to operate the turnouts and all is good.
I hope this helps.
Sean
Huh??? 
Wrong. Every one of mine is live, and power routed. They only short in the instance JF eludes to, forgot to throw the switch.
Jeff:
And you haven’t modified them out of the box, right? Please tell us the brand… or is it the afor-mentioned PECO ‘Insulfrog’?
Done properly, a live frog does NOT short. If you run the switch backwards, you can cause a short. And a powered frog certainly has to be isolated from the surrounding rails, but that’s not a DCC thing.
OK Jeff. What Brand? (Backwards or Forwards)?
‘Power Routing’ Turnouts (Live frog): Peco ‘Electrofrog’, Shinohara, Tru-Scale, Anderson/BK, Railway Engineering, CVT(?), Fast Tracks(?) , require frog isolation for DCC.
It is good to know I’m not the only one on this space-time-continuim, Newton-Einstein-Ohm planet. (And now for a totally irrelevant comment: it is too bad that the trade name “Kelvinator” [as in degrees Kelvin] disappeared from home refrigerators.)
Mark