question about walthers/shinora turnouts...

[trainsteve2435]

hello everyone, i need to know the best way to insulate the frog end of walthers/shinora turnouts? i know plastic insulaters will work, but they are very flimsy and especially in a curve. i thought about useing ordinary nickel/silver joiners and then useing a razor saw to cut a gap right after the frog on the turnout..... would this be ok? anyone have any better solutions or ideas? all comments welcome. thanks!

 

[Gary Pfeil]

That's probably the best way Steve. Not easy to do tho without nicking the opposite rail. I myself am lazy and use a dremel cutoff disc. But the reulting gap is pretty wide. In either case it's a good idea to fill the gap with styrene to prevent the gap from closing and causing a short. I use whatever thickness styrene gives a tight fit, put a small piece in place and use a drop of CA to bond it. Then file it to the contour of the rail, paint to match. If I can spike the ajoining track in place securely, I just don't use a rail joiner at all. Buy a pack of splice plates and glue one across the joint. A nice added detail.

 

[MasonJar]

I believe (and please correct me if I am wrong) that the new Walthers/Shinohara turnouts are DCC friendly - therefore not power-routing, and already insulated...

Andrew

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Andrew, I don't know what features the new Walthers/Shinohara turnouts have, as I don't have any. DCC friendly is a bit of a rubber term, can mean different things! I'm pretty sure the major improvement is making the points the same polarity as the adjacent stock rails. The old design had both points the same polarity depending on which way they were thrown, and this was the cause of DCC shorts as backs of wheels sometimes bridged the gap between the open point and the stock rail. This improvement alone makes them DCC friendly in my view. I don't know if they have also isolated the frog (and hopefully if they did they included a way to power it) Yes, they would have to isolate the frog from the points, and it would make sense that they would then also isolate it from the rails coming in from the diverging routes. If so then power for that short bit of rail would come from the diverging route and no gap would be required, your point I'm sure. I hadn't even thought about all this when I answered the original question, I'm so used to the old turnouts!

 

[MasonJar]

By "new" I mean the new Code 83 ones that specifically say DCC friendly on them...! Your point though Gary is well taken - I do not know the specific workings of these turnouts. We have a guy at our modular club who raves about them though. And they are by far the best looking turnout...

Andrew

 

[trainsteve2435]

thanks for all the information guys, i really appreciate it. oh, the switches im talking about are not the new ones, there the old models, non DCC friendly. also, where can i order those plates your refering to? thanks again!:thumb:



P.S....... do i need to cut both rails, or just one?

 

[Gary Pfeil]

Steve, you need to gap both rails coming from the frog to the diverging routes. Simplist is to just not use a joiner and spike or nail the joining track in position securely and fill the gap as above. I'm sorry but can not remember right now who it is that makes the splice bars. Tichy maybe? Perhaps someone else here will chime in.

Andrew, the new Shinoharas do look great, and better than Atlas or Peco for sure, but Micro Engineering's are really nice. Just bought a few and was laying one last night. However they are only available in # 6's!

 

[60103]

Steve: if the plastic joiners are flimsy, an air gap is flimsier. You need a piece of insulating materiel (plastic, toothpick) to keep the railends apart. If you want to cut a gap, solder the rail base to a small piece of printed circuit board and cut through the rail and the copper on the PCB. Gently, they're not glued together that strongly.