Peco Electrofrog Turnouts

[Shinkansen54]

Hi all,

 

I just had my first turnout arrive in the post and the back looks nothing like any of the videos I have been watching I discovered today that I was watching HO/OO gauge.

 

Turnout is a Peco SLE-396 Streamline Electrofrog turnout.

 

All the wires behind the frog are attached(videos had a loose end to wire for polarity}.

None of the rails are cut (they were in the videos)

There does not appear to be the wire to removed that crosses the non existent gap.

 

This has really thrown me, can anyone help, I don't want to mess my first one up before I have even started.

 

I plan to have 2 x track 1x frog wires through table into 8 bay terminal block, going out to tortoise motors.

But now I am like 'have I bought the wrong thing" it all made sense yesterday, until I opened the turnout packet.

 

Thanks in advance

 

[Shinkansen54]

I don't know if a pic helps

[Chuo]

I did a little digging and really most of the peco electrofrog knowledge is all about HO/OO. I did find the following through which to summarize says that this turnout is old and not really DCC friendly but with some modifications to the rails could maybe work? https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/15934

Edited August 13, 2019 by Chuo

[Martijn Meerts]

I've used electrofrog turnouts for my entire yard and helix (minus 1, which got destroyed and replaced by a new unifrog turnout). Have a look at (click on the arrow pointing to the top right): 

 

There are 2 pictures there of an N-scale electrofrog turnout. The first ones show the top of the turnout, basically showing where you need to cut the rails to isolate the frog. The 2nd picture is the bottom of the turnout, showing how I wire it up. The purple wire is for powering the frog, and is connect to an ESU switchpilot extension that switches polarity based on the position of the turnout. I've also soldered feeder wires to the switch rails to make 100% sure they have power, but this might be a bit overkill.

 

On all my turnouts I used a Dremel to cut a gap in the rail but this creates quite a large gap. So far, no trains have had issues with it, no derailing or anything, but I'd recommend using a jeweller's saw or something to cut the gap rather than a Dremel. Another option if you do use a Dremel, is to afterwards fill the gap by gluing in a small bit of styrene.

 

 

[cteno4]

You can get thinner cutoff wheels down to like 025, but they are usually the smaller in diameter (like 1”) making it harder or impossible to get to some perpendicular cuts. I had some 1.5” wheels that were like 020 and worked well but you had to cut slow as any twist could tear up the edge of the wheel fast.

 

gel acrylic medium may be easy to fill the gap and quick cleanup.

 

jeff

[Andrew Nummelin]

20 hours ago, Shinkansen54 said:

Hi all,

 

I just had my first turnout arrive in the post and the back looks nothing like any of the videos I have been watching I discovered today that I was watching HO/OO gauge.

 

Turnout is a Peco SLE-396 Streamline Electrofrog turnout.

 

All the wires behind the frog are attached(videos had a loose end to wire for polarity}.

None of the rails are cut (they were in the videos)

There does not appear to be the wire to removed that crosses the non existent gap.

 

This has really thrown me, can anyone help, I don't want to mess my first one up before I have even started.

 

I plan to have 2 x track 1x frog wires through table into 8 bay terminal block, going out to tortoise motors.

But now I am like 'have I bought the wrong thing" it all made sense yesterday, until I opened the turnout packet.

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

Peco have changed the details of their turnouts from time to time  and this can lead to confusion if one doesn’t think carefully. Best to just bear the following in mind:

- you may find a multimeter useful for checking connections

- remove any switching built into the turnout 

- remove the over centre spring (unless you are using hand operation or a simple solenoid)

- bond the switch rails to the adjacent stock rails 

- ensure the common crossing (frog) components are all connected but not connected to the stock rails 

- use a switch (eg in a Tortoise) to connect the common crossing to the appropriate stock rail.

 

The principles are well illustrated on the DCC concepts web site (but the details may not match your turnout):

https://www.dccconcepts.com/manual/making-peco-better/

 

It’s sometimes useful when planning a layout, especially with complex arrangements, to get at least 6 different colour pencils and draw out the rails according how the turnouts are switched.

 

[Shinkansen54]

Thanks for all your assistance guys, super helpful.

I will cut through the rail and bond the pairs with a new piece of wire.

I will mount (probably on the sides) dropper wires to the stock rails to run to the motor.

 

My only question would be the best way to solder a wire to the frog.

On those HO gauge turnouts it seemed to be a single wire from the underside, off to one side, solder a wire, drop it though base to motor.

If this had been a single wire I would be good to go, but I think it is three wires in the groove below the frog and all ends are soldered in.

Martijn had his frog wire at the joiner, which looked functional but I am thinking it will get busy in there with the insulated joiners. I am more than happy to go with that, as most likely ballast will cover it, though I just wondered if there was a way to connect under the track.

 

Your thoughts on :-

a single strand wire, off to side, then solder 20gauge to that to drop through base.

eliminate the middle man and solder the 20gauge to those wires in the groove, drop through base

 

P.S there is a good chance I am being overly cautious and am over thinking it, being my first turnout / first layout etc. The answer could well be, cut the rails, bond the rails, solder a positive and negative to stock rails and solder something from the frog to the motor and run a damn train already 🙂 But again I really do appreciate the help and you sharing your knowledge everyone.

Thank you

 

[Martijn Meerts]

If you solder the frog wire as close to the tie as you can, you won't have any issues with the insulated joiners at all. What you can do, is strip more of the frog wire, pre-tin it, and then solder it to the frog. The additional stripped / pre-tinned wire you can just route down through the base. I wouldn't use a single strand wire, any power surge (for whatever reason) might cause the strand to melt and you'll have to take out the turnout to repair it.

 

I've also been overly cautious, but I really want my turnouts especially to run well. 1 of the most annoying things in previous layouts I built, is trains stalling on turnouts when running at low speeds. I'd rather spend some extra time now to make sure things work, then to get annoyed when things don't work and I have to tear down (parts of) the layout again.

 

[Shinkansen54]

On 8/15/2019 at 10:07 AM, Martijn Meerts said:

If you solder the frog wire as close to the tie as you can, you won't have any issues with the insulated joiners at all. What you can do, is strip more of the frog wire, pre-tin it, and then solder it to the frog. The additional stripped / pre-tinned wire you can just route down through the base. I wouldn't use a single strand wire, any power surge (for whatever reason) might cause the strand to melt and you'll have to take out the turnout to repair it.

 

I've also been overly cautious, but I really want my turnouts especially to run well. 1 of the most annoying things in previous layouts I built, is trains stalling on turnouts when running at low speeds. I'd rather spend some extra time now to make sure things work, then to get annoyed when things don't work and I have to tear down (parts of) the layout again.

 

Thank you Martijn, I will be sure to post when I get to the point of fixing my turnouts. I still need a few more pieces before I can start, but I now feel much more comfortable in getting these fitted and more importantly fitting them correctly.