Wiring for Electrofrog points

[Guest]

Thanks for the helpful responses. You have read my last post correctly Chimer. After further consideration I have more or less decided on providing only one feed, fit the converging point, and insulate it with IRJs, just in case I decide to extend the layout in the future. I will also consider isolating one or both the yards to facilitate shunting.   Below is a sketch diagram of the proposed layout, which is based upon a reduced, revised and flipped track plan for Tenterden Town. As per the prototype, the upper yard will be the general goods and cattle yard, whilst the lower yard is the coal yard. I have baulked at trying to build a model of the Tenterden Town station building, which is quite unusual, instead I will be constructing a station building and railway worker's cottages based on a mixture of the timber clad structures built on the Headcorn extension. As the layout will not comply accurately with any prototype station, I have decided to call it "High Weald", which reflects the geographical location and will allow some leeway with scenery to include hop fields and oast houses etc.

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2021 by Guest

[Harlequin]

That's a lovely plan and concept.

 

I see that although your layout is end to end, the station itself is a through-station and the loop really is a passing loop, not a terminus run round loop as I had assumed.

 

So please excuse my incorrectly labelled switches above!

 

P.S. Don't forget the trap points on exit from the goods yards...

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Harlequin

[Guest]

Just a coupleof photos of Biddenden Station which will be the basis for High Weald Station building. The raiway worker's cottage can be seen at the far end of the platform in the second photo.

 

          

 

 

 

 

 

[Chimer]

That looks beautifully spacious, as my plans never do.  I'm not sure there's much point in isolating the yards though, as it's not really possible to shunt either without using the main line as a headshunt.  But if you're thinking you might ever want to extend left of the roadbridge, I would fit IRJs on the frog rails of the point at the other end of the run-round loop now, and add all the feeds Phil showed on his diagram, even if for now you wire them all together as a single section.  If you ever apply power to the left of the loop, you'll need the IRJs on the other point, and if you fit the extra IRJs you need the extra feeds to power the platform and run-round roads ..... and so it goes!  And retrofitting IRJs to a sceniced layout would be a royal pain.

 

Best of luck!

Edited November 24, 2020 by Chimer

[Pete the Elaner]

8 minutes ago, Chimer said:

That looks beautifully spacious, as my plans never do.  I'm not sure there's much point in isolating the yards though, as it's not really possible to shunt either without using the main line as a headshunt.  But if you're thinking you might ever want to extend left of the roadbridge, I would fit IRJs on the frog rails of the point at the other end of the run-round loop now, and add all the feeds Phil showed on his diagram, even if for now you wire them all together as a single section.  If you ever apply power to the left of the loop, you'll need the IRJs on the other point, and if you fit the extra IRJs you need the extra feeds to power the platform and run-round roads ..... and so it goes!  And retrofitting IRJs to a sceniced layout would be a royal pain.

 

Best of luck!

Absolutely.

If you have more sections than you need, joining them below the board is relatively easy.

Splitting anything later on is a problem (possibly because it causes a short, or maybe because you want to operate it slightly differently from originally intended).

More droppers also reduce your reliance on rail joiners for conductivity. Many feel this is a nonsense ... until it happens to their own layout.

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, Chimer said:

That looks beautifully spacious, as my plans never do.  I'm not sure there's much point in isolating the yards though, as it's not really possible to shunt either without using the main line as a headshunt.  But if you're thinking you might ever want to extend left of the roadbridge, I would fit IRJs on the frog rails of the point at the other end of the run-round loop now, and add all the feeds Phil showed on his diagram, even if for now you wire them all together as a single section.  If you ever apply power to the left of the loop, you'll need the IRJs on the other point, and if you fit the extra IRJs you need the extra feeds to power the platform and run-round roads ..... and so it goes!  And retrofitting IRJs to a sceniced layout would be a royal pain.

 

Best of luck!

 

Which is what I believe the K&ESR actually did. Passenger traffic was never heavy, with rarely more than one train per hour.

[peterfgf]

Just a thought: with a bit of care it is possible to convert electrofrog turnouts to unifrogs.  The unifrogs do help a lot with running even without switching the frog (which I've done anyhow).

[Chimer]

3 hours ago, David Schweizer said:

 

Which is what I believe the K&ESR actually did. Passenger traffic was never heavy, with rarely more than one train per hour.

 

Yep.  With that layout they would have had to.  Which is why I suggest isolating the yards would serve no operational purpose (might help for electrical fault-finding if the electrics were more complicated).  If a yard has a  headshunt clear of the main line, then isolating it means you can shunt the yard while running on the main - but no chance of that here.