can someone tell me.....

hello everyone, i have a bunch of these Shinora large radius turnouts that im useing on my layout. im wondering if someone can tell me if there DCC friendly or not ? im not even sure how to tell if they are or not. can someone please give me some information on these please? the backs of the turnouts say... Shinora Yokohama made in japan. i will include a picture of them at the end of this post. any information is really appreciated, as i did purchase these turnouts used. thanks!:wave:
 

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60103

Pooh Bah
Steve: at this point, it will depend on your rolling stock. We had problems with the shinoharas when the wheels would short from the stock rail to the points. This should not happen if your wheels are set to NMRA standards, but we had some that seemed a little loose on axles, or the flanges were a bit thick. When we found this, we did a lot of work on the turnouts to replace the stamped points with rail and redid all the wiring. (For "we", read "my friend Bill".)
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Steve, David's answer is correct. The turnout is not considered DCC friendly due to the fact that both point rails are the same polarity, which is determined by which way the turnout is thrown. The point touching one of the stock rails determines the polarity. So the other point and its adjacent stock rail are opposite polarities. Out of gauge wheelsets may bridge the gap and cause a short. When this happens with DC you often won't notice as the short exists for such a short period of time the circuit breaker may not trip. DCC boosters react to shorts more quickly (because the current they are capable of is higher, so the added protection is a good idea). Whether or not you'll have trouble is uncertain. I have a few of these on my DCC layout, have had no problem in 5 years. On the other hand, I had them on my previous DC layout, and had one which always caused a short with a couple pieces of equipment. Regauging your wheels should eliminate any problems. You are aware of the "power routing" frog and the need to gap both rails coming from the frog? A feed to the frog from a microswitch thrown along with the turnout will give you uninterupted power. Depending on the small portion of the point rail which is in contact with the stock rail for power isn't a great idea. Although these turnouts require more work than others such as Atlas and Peco, they do work well and look nice.
 
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