Shinora #6 double cross over question....

trainsteve2435

trainsteve2435

Member
Jun 18, 2004
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barboursville, wv
hello everyone, i just recently finished converting my older Shinora #6 double cross over to DCC. i cut all four frogs as indicated, used styrene to fill the gaps. i havent yet dropped feeder wires til i know this thing is gonna work or not. when i went to try it out, i attached one side of the cross over to an end spur i have in a yard. when i try to run a locomotive on it, it works fine going straight through. soon as i move the point rails to cross towards the diamond i get a short and it shuts my system down. now, if i remove the cross over, turn it around and attach it to the opposite side it will not short the system. im only attaching one leg of it at a time. im really confused because i cant seem to see where or whats causeing it to short on one leg only. anyone have any ideas? thanks! :wave:
 
Shinohara double cross

Steve: I'm new to The Gauge forum and when I was looking through some of the threads I noticed that you had not received any response to your problem ( scince July!) You may have solved the problem on your own in the mean time. If you have, I'd be interested in knowing what you found. I have had some experience with this particular item and wound up referring to it as a "Dirty double crosser" and yanking it out of the layout I was helping a friend convert to DCC operation. Fortunately, we had the room to realign the track and install an array of 4 insulfrog switches and a diamond which of course solved the problem. I have since been vaguely dissatisfied with that solution. I have always admired Shinohara switches but they are notoriously DCC unfriendly. I suspect that at least part of the problem is the fact that the point rails are connected to each other electrically. All the insulfrog switches I have seen have individual pivots for the butt of the point rails and plastic throwbars. All articles I have read on hand laid track reccommend using a PC board strip for a throwbar and cutting through the foil at some point to isolate the point rails. I suppose something could be done to isolate the point rails on Shinohara switches but it wouldn't be easy.
 
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