Unless you are using very short wheelbase 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 or multiple units without pick-ups on several bogies, there is little difference. Apart from the cost of the points and the complexity of the wiring.

Electrofog points are more expensive and require more effort wiring and you need to have a switch worked by the point motion to select the polarity of the point crossing.

What is more important is that the points are laid on a flat surface and carefully cleaned before each running session, particularly those at exhibitions.

The usual problem for most points is that out of the box they rely of metal to metal contact from the running rails to the point blades. This can be a problem particularly if the rail edges are painted. This problem can be easily eliminated by wiring a connection between these rails on every point.

I hope this has been useful.

Julie

thanks that it really has helped with it all regards loco shed

I am a fan of insulfrog(dead) frog points, because wiring is a lot simpler. Peco points are even better than they were when electrofrogs were introduced over 40 years ago. Motors are also much better, so slow running is much better.

There is one improvement I make to my points and that is to connect wires between diverting tracks so not dependent on power going though tips of point blades. That usually fixes one of the main problems. Keeping track clean is important, and as long as you don't want to run heavy trains then applying some graphite to top of rails ill keep the muck away. Especially useful in difficult to reach locations.

One thing I would like to see is some proper thorough testing to compare insulfrog and electrofrog points, as it tends to be a case of different people favouring each, for what might be spurious reasons.

I had thought about starting a thread on forum, with title 'Dead or (a)live?'.

Thing is that , in theory, as long as one wheel on each rail is in contact with a powered rail, then the loco should continue to move, so any problem will be caused by something else, eg dirty track, or unevenness (which might be the top surface of the plastic on a dead frog being slightly higher than the metal rail).

As I said, this really needs to be properly investigated, as I have come across too many problems caused by over-complicating things, especially when live frogs are used.