[crispycritter]

I have for a while been using insulated frogs on my dcc layout (test bench) and had a big problem with the peco long turnout, the mediums wasn't to bad, I finnally decided that the length of the frog was just to long and switched to a live frog. Anyway to get to the question, I read this in another thread.

QUOTE Points with DCC should have the inner rails of the exit tracks isolated. These are the rails that connect to the frog.

Generally you power the rails of the point from the rails going into the points. As the rails going out are isolated, you need power feeds on the tracks on the other side of the points too.
What is the reason for wiring this way and what benefits will I get?

I wired mine as per the instructions on the peco sheet, isolate where the points oppose each other. One thing I have found since changing out the long turnout, I am able to run my trains much slower through the point

on the downside the remaining medium turnouts now stall the train

guess thats the next thing to change.

 

[dwb]

Allan Gartner's Wiring for DCC webpage tells you everything you need to know and probably a lot more you didn't.

I have adopted a "total overkill" approach to wiring electrofrog points - all 6 rail ends are connected using insulating rail joiners. I solder "drop" wires to the two outer rails and one to the central set of rails - I use Peco large radius and leave those teeny weeny shorting wires in place. So now I have 3 wires which drop through the baseboard. The frog and centre rail set is powered via microswitch attached to the point mechanism.

None of the Peco large radius points I have been buying in the last year or so have those nasty little contact wipers on them - sooner or later ballast gets in and they stop working, the loco stalls on the frog and I get irritated - this is a hobby and it is supposed to be relaxation and enjoyment!

David

 

[Ozzie21]

I do something similar to DWB. Feed power should come from the toe of the point and you should connect a feed to the track rail and point rail on each side as well. Peco actually leave a space between the sleepers to do this. The connect one wire to the frog wire, this is for switching frog polarity when you change routes on the point. Now this is where I diverge slightly from DWB . I too leave the little jumper wires in place but I cut the rails just at the neck part of the frog and again just in front of the frog. This makes the frog as short as possible so any loco should be able to cross with out stalling. This has worked with great success on my previous layout so I'm using the same approach on the new layout.

Ozzie21

 

[Doug]

You don't really need to isolate the outer rails as there is little danger of them shorting.

You isolate the inner rails of the exit tracks as these are connected to the frog.

The whole frog changes 'polarity' when the point blades are switched... and thus, the inner exit rails also change polarity. This would create a short on the exit side of the points unless isolated.

 

[crispycritter]

Thanks for the replies, after reading your posts it made Alan Gartners wiring fo dcc alot more clearer (turnout wiring page), for non electically minded people like myself I find I go into information overload when I read his articles

. Correct me if I am wrong, the issue is not with the way peco wire them but a reliability issue once they are installed. Yesterday, as luck would have it I found a local source for model railway magazines from the uk and in the July issue of model rail they showed another way similar to Ozzie21 method to do it.