:hellosign: Hi guys. Just in the process of adding a couple of sidings to my goods yard. Whilst all my current points are insulfrogs, my preference would be Electrofrog for my goods yard to allow smother slow speed shunting. My question is, can I simply use an Electrofrog point with no additionial wiring as long as it's being used for a siding, and not in a passing loop etc? Can multiple turnouts be used in a goods yard as long as none are rejoining the main line. All this DCC stuff is still all new to me. Thx
Yes but not ideal...
IF there is no additional track feed beyond the point, you will be relying on the point blades making contact to power the whole siding...
If you do put in an additional feed to the siding make sure there is an insulation gap immediately after the point (and you are still relying on blade contact to feed the frog.)
Quote from: PLD on May 14, 2015, 07:52:56 AM
Yes but not ideal...
IF there is no additional track feed beyond the point, you will be relying on the point blades making contact to power the whole siding...
If you do put in an additional feed to the siding make sure there is an insulation gap immediately after the point (and you are still relying on blade contact to feed the frog.)
another option, if you are motorising the points would be to use a point motor with a built in SPDT switch to change the frog polarity. I favour "Tortoise" motors which have two such switches so can change frog polarity and work a mimic board.
True Steve, and exactly what I would do, however that is the "additional wiring" Marcus is trying to avoid...
Quote from: PLD on May 14, 2015, 12:44:52 PM
True Steve, and exactly what I would do, however that is the "additional wiring" Marcus is trying to avoid...
Yes but it isn't much and gives a much better job and we are always about if help is needed
Quote from: PLD on May 14, 2015, 07:52:56 AM
Yes but not ideal...
IF there is no additional track feed beyond the point, you will be relying on the point blades making contact to power the whole siding...
If you do put in an additional feed to the siding make sure there is an insulation gap immediately after the point (and you are still relying on blade contact to feed the frog.)
I'm still a little confused to why you would need the insulation gap. Wouldn't the metal wheels close this gap once the loco travels over thus making a connection between the 2 rails? Or am I missing something? Thx.
Quote from: Marcus Amison on May 14, 2015, 08:07:29 PM
Quote from: PLD on May 14, 2015, 07:52:56 AM
Yes but not ideal...
IF there is no additional track feed beyond the point, you will be relying on the point blades making contact to power the whole siding...
If you do put in an additional feed to the siding make sure there is an insulation gap immediately after the point (and you are still relying on blade contact to feed the frog.)
I'm still a little confused to why you would need the insulation gap. Wouldn't the metal wheels close this gap once the loco travels over thus making a connection between the 2 rails? Or am I missing something? Thx.
In short, as the point changes, the polarity of the frog (and therefore any rails not electrically isolated from it) changes between +ve and -ve. If you have additional feeds beyond the point; on the two rails leading from the frog you (should) have 1 +ve, 1 -ve. Unless they are isolated from the frog you will have a permanent short circuit...
Hi Marcus....as you are going DCC don't be tempted to use the minimum number of feeds you can get away with....always feed both sides of the siding past the electrofrog point fitting the insulated joiners at the frog rails...this way your siding will always be live irrespective of the position of the point and you can be shunting in this siding while the point is set against it and you are not relying on the point blades to pass the current...thats the real benefit of DCC...if you don`t want to solder droppers to your power bus wires you can use presoldered fishplates which worked very well for me and are dead easy to install at each join or say every couple of feet at most...look at agl products on ebay as he has dcc droppers with 16/2 wire already attached to the fishplates and also 1/2 joiners attached to lighter wire to power the frog if you intend to later use a point motor...my advice would be to fit droppers to either frogs rail ready to add point motors later as and when you can afford them...i have my layout in my garage and it can get quite dusty but by using droppers on the frogs and point motors i get good running without worrying about how clean the point blade contact is...if you use the half fishplate at the frog rail you will not be able to fit an insulated joiner but ensure you have a small gap instead...just take your time when fitting the point to ensure the exit frog rail without an insulated joiner is level...if you solder to the frog then you just use 2 insulated joiners as normal...with DCC it is not just about passing the track voltage but maintaining a good clear signal to your decoders in the locos and the more droppers you have the better the signal will be.