I use a piece of phosphor bronze wire across each side of the rail joiner that was inserted for the point blade. this also helps retain the blade. As for the metal throwbar why not leave it in place, drill out the rivet, and solder the PC board to the metal throw and then make a cut across the metal throw bar t and the metal layer of the PC board tie.
I dropped model railroading around 2000 and then picked it up again about three years ago, so I missed much of the development of DCC over that 20 year period. Thank you, Larry, for showing why "DCC Friendly" applied to turnouts is not just marketing hype. Your historical comments really helped explain this to me. Cheers from Wisconsin!
Hi Larry, Love your insight into model railroading and I have over 50 old Shinohara switches and I just converted my first one following your video and using the PC Tie Boards and solder you recommended! I am happy to share it work like a charm and my short went away and I now feel confident to finish the modifications for rest of those switches. Also added the Tam Valley Frog Juicer and my locomotive rolls through the switch with no hesitation. Thanks and keep the tips coming!
One thing I have found out, not all Shinohara turnouts are alike. The brass contacts that you pull out from under the rails were all soldered in place on my Shinohara switches. 11 out of 12 switches, only 1 popped out as easily as yours did! Thankfully I am very comfortable desoldering them and removing them. Just another twist to look out for. Excellent video by the way!
I’ve been converting many switches this way but your techniques are far superior to mine. I shall up grade mine immediately thanks to you. Keep on keeping these videos coming. Thanks, Joe
Excellant demonstration on ho wto turn insulfrog into electrofrog (for the Brits watching). I have tons of insulfrog and am about to go DCC, they simply do not work as well. So this is going to save me buying all new. Thanks for an explicit and great demonstation.
I have a Shinohara right hand curved turnout on my workbench right now. I have isolated the frog, but only cut the rails before the frog and installed a styrene strip. I'll use plastic rail joiners on the two frog rails, like on a Peco Electrofrog. The feeder will be soldered on the side away from the aisle. I like your method of providing power to the point rails, I never though of that! Stay safe!
A local hobby shop owner, who was closing his business, had a copy paper box full of those curved turnouts, He gave me the box for free. I had been wondering about how to use those. I’m going follow your steps to makes those DCC friendly. Then use those in my hidden staging area for my On30 layout. My visible tracks are Peco O-16.5 for On30. Peco switches get expensive quickly in staging yards. The only thing I would do different is I would attach my 12 inch long feeder wires across the rails where you put those short pieces of solid wire. Thank you for the video.
I had wondered why I was getting shorts every time I tried to run my newly DCC control on my old DC layout. Now I Know!!! Thanks heaps, I'll be going over my whole layout and fixing it up as per your instructions. Quite a job, but at least I'll get a thoroughly working layout!
I worked out that i was going to have to do something along this line because i wasn't getting good electrical connection at point to stock rail. You have made this look easy and as soon as i get the pc board ties i will give this a go. THANKS!
A very iformative video. I do dc only, but I can use the method to avoid my trans to stal over my insulated frogs. Thank you ever so much. Steen, Denmark.
Larry Great video. I wish that I'd seen this two years ago because I tore out 90 old Shinohara turnouts and replaced them with one made using the Fast Tracks system. In the end, I'm happy with the results but it did cost me about $1000. Your process looks very good.
don't have anything to do with me I'm not DCC and not ever planning on going DCC I'm staying DC it's so much easier less headaches n problems and a lot cheaper nice video thou hope it helps somebody
I really like my newer Shinohara turnouts. They are DCC friendly. It's a shame that Shinohara is out of business. In October of 2020 Walthers is said to be coming out with a new line of DCC friendly turnouts. Can't wait to get my hands on some of them. Tech tip for soldering on track .... use a small tipped fiberglass or metal bristle brush to clean the track to be soldered. then clean with alcohol swab before soldering. Dab rosin flux on surface then solder really hot really fast. Perfect solder joint every time with no melted ties. Silver bearing solder will generally melt at a slightly higher temperature.
Instead of connecting the closure rails to the point rails by a 30 ga wire, why not solder the rail joiner connecting the closure to the point rail? The point rail will still move back and forth as easily.
Best regards, Your videos are of excellent quality and full of content. I have seen all your turnout videos and I am in an uncertain situation since I am not an expert on the subject. I am a train modeling novice. I recently bought a Fleischmann starter set. (My first train in my life) The set which is digital is: 931886 - FLEISCHMANN Premium - z21 Digital starter set: electric locomotive class 194 with goods train, DB The track is oval in shape with double rails on one side simulating a station, with entry and exit deviation. The turnouts are Fleischmann N Left and Right hand curved point Ref: 9168 and 9169 "for manual operation with current-conducting frog" And Fleischmann official website say: Turnouts with a conductive frog must always be set in the direction of travel from which de train is comming, otherwise a shor circuit will occur. The requiered changeover or the polarity or the frog takes place automatically when de switch is changed. Reading on the internet, I found a quote that said: From: Digital Command Control. Ames et al, Allt om Hobby/NMRA; 1998 ..... "The ideal turnout is frog electrically isolated and powered by switch contacts" I have three questions: 1. Are these Fleischmann Tournouts frog electrically isolated and powered by switch contacts? 2. If no, from your experience, ¿what kind of turnout are these? 3. The set is supposed to be ready to run, (I couldn't say for sure ) ¿Do i need some kind of special wiring in order to avoid short circuits? This is my first train, it is expensive, and it would be terrible if I were to damage it by improper handling. I would appreciate it if you could advise me on this matter. Greetings Hector
I wish I could help but I have never even seen a Fleishmann turnout and have no idea whether the frog is insulated or can be separately powered. If you have a multimeter you can test it to see though (see video 86 on using a multimeter). From your description it is hard to say whether the frog is powered by contact at the points or designed to be powered by switch contacts or a frog juicer. In either case operating a locomotive on it should cause no harm, it will mean that either the frog may lost power or have no power at all. You also might want to view my video on turnouts (no. 77).
Why didn't you use an NMRA gauge when you set the point rails on the PCB tie? Couldn't just eyeing the point rails cause a derailment, just an inch down the point rails the wheels could drop on the ties because there is too large a gap?
That would not give you the electrical connection between the closure rail and stock rail, which is what you want. You don’t want to rely on the physical contact between the point rail an stock rail for power. Too many things like ballast, foam scenery, paint, cat hair, etc., can get in the way.
I am new to DCC. My layout is 25 years old (all DC) and I am converting it all to DCC. I have successfully converted 7 or 8 turnouts using the instructions in this excellent video, Except for the part where you mention powering the newly isolated frog. Electronically everything works except the now dead spot where the frog is. How do I power the isolated frog?
You need to solder a wire to the side of one of the pieces of rail that comprise the frog. Then connect that wire to one of the built-in SPDT switches in a Tortoise or the dedicated frog connection on an iP Digital switch machines. If you are not using motorized turnout machines then you need to either use one of the Caboose ground throws with a built in switch or a Frog Juicer.
Hi. I like your show and I am interesting to have information about how I can make the old turnout to DCC Friendly? Thanks for your understanding my matter. AALWABIL
Larry, I see that Atlas are finally modernizing their much maligned HO switches and next month will bring out their new Mark V series that are described as DCC-friendly. Any chance you will produce a review of them some time? Cheers, Peter
Thanks for the informative video but I have one problem with this process. When reinstalling the point rails to the pcb throw bar tie, how do you keep the solder from flowing underneath the point rail and soldering the stock rail to it? This has happened to me twice. Thanks, Larry
Yes, N scale is even more sensitive to power pickup issues. Unfortunately I don’t have any N-scale equipment any long and only know of 1 person in my area with them so it would be hard for me to do anything in that scale.
@@TheDCCGuy I will just look around more. Thank you for keeping your post to around 20 to 30 minutes. I get bored when watching anything over 25 minutes and fall asleep. These sites that do 1 hour or even 3 hours must not have lives. Again thank you I learn a lot.
I wish all of you seasoned Model Railroad Guy’s would stop blowing on your solder joints to cool them after soldering ! It can cause the solder joint to fail mechanically and more importantly it can create a cold solder joint that produces an intermittent connection! Just saying….😐
Here's a question I have, if you don't mind. A little set-up first; I have a setup made with Bachmann track. Including 4 switches and crossovers made by Bachmann. Well, after getting my 4th DCC loco I realized it might be easier to use an NCE Power Cab (I could access my Locos by their road numbers.) So I've done that. Now, here is my question - Could I use my Bachmann E-Z Command Controller to operate the switches and crossovers, while using the NCE to operate the locos, at the same time?
Well right off let me say you cannot mix commands from two different command stations at the same time on the same track. However if the bus for the switches is completely separate from the track then you could do it but you would not be able to operate the switches using your throttle if that is what you want. Your nest net is to see your Bachmann controller and buy either an inexpensive booster like the one made by Tamm Valley Depot or upgrade to the SB5 which will give you 5 amps and expanded capabilities.
Larry -- The atlas nscale code 55 turnouts fail a lot .. especially around the frog and closure rails .. would be a good video to show how to fix those
I really found this video useful. However, my question is not related to this video but several that you have posted in the past. I have obtained the European style terminal/barrier strips that you have referred to in other videos. How do you attach them underneath your layout? Do you Scotch double sided tape or the like? Thanks, Kennedy
@@TheDCCGuy Okay. That was so obvious that I failed to see it. I would agues a No. 6 x 1 inch pan head screw will fit the bill. Thanks for your help and quick response.
if you go here microengineering.com/Micro_Engineering_Ladder_Track_System_v1.pdf they have a lot of info on them and they say they are DCC compatible which I assume means DCC Friendly.
OK.... I got what you may consider a dumb question .. Since HO runs on DC current, why aren't all switches made for HO "DC friendly"? This make absolutely no sense to me.
Why did you add the 2-30 ga wires, when the power was already feeding your points at the PC board, you installed. There is no reason for that connection of 30ga wire.
One of the biggest problems comes from trying to rely on the physical contact at the points for electrical continuity. A physical contact like that is highly unreliable. Get a piece of ballast, foam scenery, cat hair, etc. in there and your loco will stop dead in its tracks. And that’s why powering the closure and point rails is the DCC Friendly thing to do. Also even though the copper strip is under the rail there is no reliable physical connection at the PC board either.
The DCC Guy I have been building Fast Track switches for years. If the points that you removed are solder to the PC board, it is highly unlikely there will be a power problem. On your redesign switch
I am a firm believer in Murphy’s Law-“if it can happen it eventually will happen”. I try to never rely on physical contacts for electrical continuity, especially on a model railroad, and with DCC where good electrical continuity is even more important.
NO, there is no electrical connection to the PC board at all! It is floating under the point rails. Any electrical connection there is incidental and not to be relied upon.
Are you familiar with the Bachmann EZ track DCC turnouts? I recently purchased two that had as part of the turnouts description that they have electrically wired frogs. However the #4 turnout has a plastic frog and the instructions on either of the turnouts do not describe how the electrically wired frog functions. Thanks
