james nichols Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Is everyone just cutting the spikes from the first tie of each end of the turnout to get connectors to fit? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nile Posted March 30, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 30, 2020 No, Peco 009/N rail joiners should fit without having to do that. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
james nichols Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 Ok, need to find some then. I'm in the States and all i could find were Micro Engineering. They must be longer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nile Posted April 1, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 1, 2020 The Peco ones are 3/8th inch long, about 9mm. I've got some ME code 55 joiners that look the same size. I haven't tried them on Peco track. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fezza Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 (edited) For some reason certain recent batches of Peco 009/ n connectors are utter shite. They are too tight to fit the rails. If you do manage to get one to fit the metal is so soft that the connector quickly distorts and becomes loose and useless. I don't know what has happened to this production run. I have old Peco connectors from my old layout and they are so much better. Edited April 2, 2020 by fezza Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
james nichols Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 Where connecting turnout to turnout I wound up cutting the connectors in half and soldering the joiners to the rails. Where connecting turnout to flex track I can remove enough ties from the flex to fully slide a rail joiner on and then slip it onto the turnout rail as far as it will go, again soldering the connections. Having not used electrofrog or other types of power routing turnouts before I have now found the joys of a shorted circuit. So after some reading it looks like i need to "feed" the turnouts from the entry side ( away from the frog ). I also need insulating gaps but everything is already mounted to the board. My plan is to cut gaps with a dremel tool on the diverging side of the frog. My question now is do I need to cut both rails of a route or can I just cut the rails attached to the frog. In drawing things out and tracing the power paths I feel like just cutting the rails attached to the frog should be sufficient. I will post a drawing if I can get something that is somewhat clear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
james nichols Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 This is where I feel I need to cut to insulate against shorts. The schematic, as bad as it is, shows the two turnouts I feel I need to gap. It also shows the two places I think I need feeders and three others ( circled in gold ) where I might need some but am pretty convinced I do not need them. It would appear that without the gold feeders there would be dead track in those areas along with the lower right two sidings when the turnouts are not aligned for those routes. I can use that to operate two locos on the layout without block switches I assume. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyChappy Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, james nichols said: This is where I feel I need to cut to insulate against shorts. The schematic, as bad as it is, shows the two turnouts I feel I need to gap. It also shows the two places I think I need feeders and three others ( circled in gold ) where I might need some but am pretty convinced I do not need them. It would appear that without the gold feeders there would be dead track in those areas along with the lower right two sidings when the turnouts are not aligned for those routes. I can use that to operate two locos on the layout without block switches I assume. Only 2 feeds are required - 1 just as you have drawn at the left hand end feeding into the toe of the left hand top turnout and the second feed between the turnouts in the centre of the diagram again as you have correctly drawn. To isolate the feeds just 2 cuts are required as follows: - cut both rails at gold point 2 on your diagram and both rails between the two turnouts at the left hand end of your diagram (i.e fit nylon track connectors in both rails between the two turnouts . No switches are required unless you wish to switch off either feed to isolate a loco on that section. Hope this helps. Edited April 5, 2020 by happyChappy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nile Posted April 5, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 5, 2020 Hello James, welcome to the world of electrofrog wiring. I've drawn a diagram of how I would wire it up for DC operation. This needs three cuts to the rails, marked with X. Turnout A acts as a current routing switch, it determines which side of the loop is live. Switch S is needed if you want to isolate and park a loco at B. Otherwise it can be left closed or omitted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
james nichols Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 Thanks for the information., track is now laid and wired. With three cuts and three wires I have power to all tracks and the ability to "park" a loco using the turnout power routing. Now if my MinitrainS loco would come from the UK I could work on getting things running smoothly. Right now I am using a Lilliput loco of an unknown vintage. It was found at a train show with 5 passenger cars labeled as HOn3. It runs well enough but I hope that a modern loco will be super smooth. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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