Peco bullhead modifications

[Goodnight Sweetheart]

I’m using peco oo bullhead points which are unifrog (is that the correct term?) I want to take to do the usual modification to them that you’d do to electrodrog points - wife across each pair of rail then feed them from cross wire for power. Frog juicer with a separate  motor for movement only.

 

Will this cause any problems with the operation of unifrog points ? 
 

Thanks in advance. 

[roundhouse]

13 minutes ago, Goodnight Sweetheart said:

wife across each pair of rail

I guess that she will not be too happy about that🙂

[RFS]

There's no need to do anything to these points as the new design makes this unneccessary. If you want full conductivity through the whole point, you just need to connect the frog wire to an accessory switch to provide the right polarity. But if you are not using short wheelbase locos, you may not need to do so.

 

If you are unsure, just feed the frog wire through the baseboard when you lay the point, so you can add a switch later if needed. 

Edited November 21, 2023 by RFS

[roundhouse]

On a more serious note, I agree with RFS.

 

I have installed a few Unifrog turnouts on a test circuit and have put the wire dropper through the board but not wired them up so as to test any locos for poor pick ups. Even small 0-4-0 locos will normally pass through the Unifrog if all wheels pick ups are working as they should but on a new layout I have wired the Unifrog to a Gaugemaster  Autofrogs units without any modifications to the turnouts.

Edited November 21, 2023 by roundhouse

[Gilbert]

I was pleasantly surprised to wire up Penmaenbach without frog power switching - and everything worked

Chris H

[Harlequin]

Don’t do anything to the unifrog turnouts! They are already set up how you want straight out of the packet. That’s the whole point (hoho) of unifrog.

 

[Goodnight Sweetheart]

2 hours ago, RFS said:

There's no need to do anything to these points as the new design makes this unneccessary. If you want full conductivity through the whole point, you just need to connect the frog wire to an accessory switch to provide the right polarity. But if you are not using short wheelbase locos, you may not need to do so.

 

If you are unsure, just feed the frog wire through the baseboard when you lay the point, so you can add a switch later if needed. 

It’ll only be bogie locos, so like you say there may well be no need. I’ll feed the frog wire through just in case.

 

Thanks 

[Goodnight Sweetheart]

That’s great thanks guys I really appreciate it.

[Ben Alder]

Did mine, as part of a rolling replacement, with wired frogs at first, but found that everything, including small tank locos passed through the dead frog without any problems. Admittedly DC, but they do seem to do what it says on the packet.....

[John Besley]

I am about to change over to DCC from DC, what alterations do I need to make if any to my track - already down and scenics finished and ballasted etc.

 

Do I need a permanent live feed to a siding to run the lights and sounds on locos that are 'parked up'

[RFS]

55 minutes ago, John Besley said:

I am about to change over to DCC from DC, what alterations do I need to make if any to my track - already down and scenics finished and ballasted etc.

 

Do I need a permanent live feed to a siding to run the lights and sounds on locos that are 'parked up'

 

The convention with DCC is that all track is permanently live. As you mention, this means stationary stock with sound and/or lights continue to function.

 

 

[Harlequin]

1 hour ago, John Besley said:

I am about to change over to DCC from DC, what alterations do I need to make if any to my track - already down and scenics finished and ballasted etc.

 

Do I need a permanent live feed to a siding to run the lights and sounds on locos that are 'parked up'

Are your sidings supplied with power by points alone or from a switch on a control panel?

 

If the former then you will need to isolate the sidings and give them a new power supply so that they remain powered whichever way the points are set.

 

If the latter then you just need to turn all the switches on.

 

Edited January 10 by Harlequin

[Pete the Elaner]

46 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Are your sidings supplied with power by points alone or from a switch on a control panel?

 

If the former then you will need to isolate the sidings and give them a new power supply so that they remain powered whichever way the points are set.

 

If the latter then you just need to turn all the switches on.

 

 

When a worked with a friend to wire up his DC layout, I future proofed it by isolating & re-feeding after all points. It must have been exhibited 10-15 times without an issue (not an electrical one anyway).

He then donated it to the club & we wanted to use DCC. It was a small layout so the wiring was sufficient for the required current. We just close all the section switches & the whole layout is live.

 

Modifying electrofrog points 'for DCC' is a misnomer. Powering the frog via a switch instead of the point blade is instead a reliability issue. We have never cleaned the point of contact between any stock rail & point blade, not have we ever had a loco stall on a point frog. A track cleaning block over all the rails is the only cleaning we have ever required.

[John Besley]

Ok that's kind of what I thought, when I built Exhill 3 years ago I wired it in the conventional DC manor feeding the two sections from the point heel and simply laying the Peco point as supplied by Peco without any modification so each siding is 'live' when the point is operated in the same manor as a switch.

 

Do I now need to wire an additional feed from the track the heel side to keep sidings live on the 'switch' rail side... the main one I am thinking of is the spur to the loco shed access road, the other sidings won't mater to much as locos only access them to remove stock during shunting

 

Otherwise I'll have to dig up and replace points - something I don't want to do 

[Nile]

If they are unifrog points then the sidings will already be live all the time, that's how they are wired up. If in doubt, test it.