Oakley Mountain

[naivegauge]

I have made more progress and started laying the point work on the entrance to staging yard, that splits 1 lane into 8 lanes.
A question has arisen: should I insulate the frogs in each individual point and power each stock-rail (what I have done) or just power the stock rails at the toe of the first point, and then insulate the frogs at the exit of the whole point system? Some folks have recommended this second approach to me, but it just does not seem right to me. Am I wrong?
https://youtu.be/-s0Q8GQUlLQ

[Brian]

Hi
You say you're using Peco Code 55 electrofrog's in post #1. The rule of thumb when installing electrofrog points is to fit two Insulated Rail joiners (IRJs) to the ends of each points Vee rails then add additional rail feeds of the correct polarity after the IRJs.
The only exception is where an electrofrog point feeds a dead end siding and no rail connection for power exist on those rails. Here and so long as its a dead end siding, you don't have to fit the IRJ for that direction. However, if later on you alter the track plan and add further point(s) or a rail feed, you will have a short circuit occur on the system!
So IMO its always best and probably easiest to fit two IRJs when track laying. Then you'll never have any issues!

[naivegauge]

Hi
You say you're using Peco Code 55 electrofrog's in post #1. The rule of thumb when installing electrofrog points is to fit two Insulated Rail joiners (IRJs) to the ends of each points Vee rails then add additional rail feeds of the correct polarity after the IRJs.
The only exception is where an electrofrog point feeds a dead end siding and no rail connection for power exist on those rails. Here and so long as its a dead end siding, you don't have to fit the IRJ for that direction. However, if later on you alter the track plan and add further point(s) or a rail feed, you will have a short circuit occur on the system!
So IMO its always best and probably easiest to fit two IRJs when track laying. Then you'll never have any issues!

Yep. Even though I knew what your are saying, it did not stop me making the mistake of missing a IRJ by accident.

Other than that, I have had a pretty good week, and my first proper play with tortoise point motors to get my yard entrance motorised, and the frogs powered. I have also had my first go with a peco 3-way point. Here is my latest progress.
https://youtu.be/q18d9JAUy7s

I have learned a few things:
* Positioning the point motor relative to the point's tie bar is crucial, especially if you are powering the frog from the point motor as you need to ensure that the point motor switches power to the frog at the time that neither of the switch rails are in contact with the stock rails. If not you get a short.
* You need to go slowly and make sure you have insulated rail joiners in all the right places.
* It is helpful to drill extra holes in the contact tabs on the tortoise units before installation, as that makes it much easier to connect more than one wire to each tab.
* It is much easier to do the wiring when I can turn the board over rather than being underneath the board. Fixing the board to the frame really needs to be delayed as much as possible.
* I need to learn some tricks on cable management to make everything a lot neater.

That is about it for now. I expect doing the other end of my staging yard will go a lot smoother.

[Chops]

shriek, howl. The ballast does not travel into the switch points and does not generally migrate like so many sparrows into every corner of the realm?

[naivegauge]

shriek, howl. The ballast does not travel into the switch points and does not generally migrate like so many sparrows into every corner of the realm?

I do not understand what you are saying @chops.

[Chops]

Not wishing to deviate from naivegauge's thread, but I originally glued my track down and was successful until things went wrong. A point became faulty and had to be removed for a new one.

Now I just pin the track down and the ballast is not glued down. I can hear cries of shock, horror. After 19 years of working this way and running trains regularly I have had no challenges.

Glencairn

Apologies for the confusion. I was wondering aloud how the unglued ballast of Glencairn does not foul the switches.