I have 45 turnouts in my layout, all Shinohara HO. Some of them I’ve received brand new, and the little thin, flat bars on the under side of the turnout has separated at one end from the bottom side of the rail, stopping the flow of electricity. I’ve tried “glueing” the end of the bar back in place with Super glue, but it just doesn’t work; I still cannot get electrical continuity. How have some of you folks fixed this problem? Obviously you cannot soder it because of all the plastic. I’m getting tired of shipping these things back and forth to Walthers!
I don’t depend on any of the solder joints on my turnouts for electrical continuity. The only real fix for this that I have found over time has been to solder feeders to just about every part of the turnout: both stock rails, the fixed part of the wing rail and the frog. The latter will have to be connected in such a way that it changes polarity with the position of the turnout.
Check out www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_walthers.htm#a3 . Allen Gartner has some very good information on these turnouts, and most anything other question for wiring dcc layouts. Hope this helps.