atlas frogs and short wheel base locos

I have Atlas turnouts (#4 and #6) on my turnouts. when the locos are travelling at a reasonable speed, they usually make it thruough the turnouts, although with a slight hesitation at lower speeds. However, when running at switch yard speeds, the locos stall at the frogs. the problem is that the wheel base of my locos (a docksider, a 'teakettle,' a bachmann prairie and a bachmann jupiter (4-4-0 american) is shorter than the insulated section of the frogs. the only solution I can come up with is to relace the turnouts.

is there a better (cheaper) solution?

Reply to
larry l.
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However,

======= Atlas frogs can be powered even though they look lik plastic. THey are insulated from the connecting rails. They are very hard to soldert to but you can run some brass screws through the holes and solder to the screws. Atlas sells relays dor this purpose but they are kinda high priced. If the turnouts are manual throws use a SPDT micro switch activated by the throwbar. This doesn't work too well if solonoid driven. The solonoids and connections are kinda wishy-washy to trow both the turnout and activate the micro switch. Good Luck. Larry, North Fortk RR

Reply to
Lawrence Costa

Atlas "snap switches" are plastic so before you apply heat, check that they conduct electricity with a ohm meter. Their custom line and super switches have metal frog which can be soldered as detailed below. in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Lawrence Costa at snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net wrote on 9/9/03 10:10 AM:

Reply to
Edward A. Oates

Try placing a steel rule across the top of the frog and each rail in turn to see if the plastic frog is higher than the running rails. It only needs to be a minute fraction higher and both current collecting wheels on that side will be clear of powered rails. I solved this problem using a largish tool sharpening stone - the type with coarse on one side, fine on the other - just run it, with a little oil, over the turnout top a few times in a circular motion. The excess plastic on the frog will disappear quickly (the metal rails slower :-). The result will be much better, if not perfect running.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

Sorry to say it bue when you buy poor products, you get poor performance. Plastic frogs are not needed and only make things a problem for good operation. For now, filing down the plastic to expaose more of the metal in the frog will help but the best thing is to learn how to lay turnouts from scratch. Do it right and you will quickly have the best looking and best running trackwork around.

-- There are more Democrats on the Calif. Special Election than Republicans! Go count if you don't believe me! Bob May

Reply to
Bob May

You only need the insulated frog to be even or fractionally lower than the running rails for reasonable operation. An insulated frog higher than the powered rails will lift the other wheels of a rigid frame off the powered rail on that side.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

However, it is a moot point because by nature of the original poster he was using #4's and #6's. Those are not snap switches. They have an insulated metal frog that can be powered.

performance.

Reply to
Frank A. Rosenbaum

Given a perfectly flat turnout on a perfectly flat baseboard, an insulated metal frog should only cause one wheel to lose contact. Reality isn't like that, the unpowered frog is going to be higher and lift the other collecting wheel on that side off the rails as well. Try a test: colour the rail tops of one of your turnouts with felt pen and then run a flat sharpening stone over all those rails a few times - I bet the rails are not evenly polished due to height differences and the metal frog is the shiniest spot.

Regards, Greg.P.

Reply to
Gregory Procter

As mentioned in other posts file the frog level with the rest of the track and power it. Even when powered the #6's sometimes causes dropouts when a sound equipped loco goes over them. It appears the wheel base on a Geep or F unit is the same as the spacing of the insulating plastic at each end of the metal frog. This means two wheels have lost contact and if the other two hit a spot of dirt or lift up power is lost. This is only noticeable on a sound equipped loco because the lost of power is for such a short time.

Stuart Sabatini Palm Coast,FL

Reply to
Stuart Sabatini

Unfortunately, the problem is indeed that you will have one wheel on each side that is in contact and that means that the one wheel on the frog side will be sitting on the frog and thus being insulated from the electrical contact of the running rail. Most small locos don't have springing to keep all 4 or more wheels on the track and thus will easily open from such problems.

-- There are more Democrats on the Calif. Special Election than Republicans! Go count if you don't believe me! Bob May

Reply to
Bob May
277.230 Frogs on tracks.Every railroad company shall keep the frogs on its tracks adjusted, fixed or blocked toprevent the feet of its employees from being caught therein. Effective: October 1, 1942 History: Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky.Stat. sec. 780.

source:

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Reply to
Corelane

Fellas, It could also be worth looking at arranging an extra pick-up from tender wheels, or loco. leading bogie wheels, not too difficult if you can solder, and would alleviate problems with dirty or unlevel sections of track as well as from high frogs. Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce

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