# Electro Frog?



## britblad (Jan 2, 2012)

I have a few short wheel base engines and i have been thinking about using Peco Elecofrogs for my yard. I don't have one atm so i thought before i order a bunch of them i would ask how you power the frogs?

I use atlas #8's on my mainline and those have a loop to solder to do the electro frogs have something like that?

oh also i use tortoise and use the switch on them to power my #8 frogs


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

You can use Peco Electrofrog turnouts on a DCC layout.
but you will need to isolate the frog rails and make them power routed.
The frog is powered by the switch machine outputs.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I have two Peco Electro frog turnouts. Both work fine with out power routing to the frog. The MUST have insulator on the inside rails after the frog.

Most of my turnouts are Peco insul frog and I have no trouble running short switcher engines (all wheel pickup) locos over them.


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## britblad (Jan 2, 2012)

NIMT said:


> You can use Peco Electrofrog turnouts on a DCC layout.
> but you will need to isolate the frog rails and make them power routed.
> The frog is powered by the switch machine outputs.



So theres nothing to solder to to make it easy just have to find a spot on the frog to solder the wire?


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## Brakeman Jake (Mar 8, 2009)

I have installed many of the Peco Electrofrog type turnouts on the club's N scale layout a few years ago and haven't powered a single frog yet.Like been said,insulate both legs of the frog and the moving rail takes care of the frog power.We've had one that caused a problem...some ballast had blocked the moving rail from proper contact.


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## britblad (Jan 2, 2012)

i guess i will just have to buy one and see what has to be done i was thinking about using hornby switches but finding info that relates to them is hard sometimes


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I love the Peco trunouts. they they are spring loaded and can be thrown by hand even with there snap switch machine attached.


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## britblad (Jan 2, 2012)

Southern said:


> I love the Peco trunouts. they they are spring loaded and can be thrown by hand even with there snap switch machine attached.


I plan to use tortoise since that's what i stared with on my atlas #8's


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## Brakeman Jake (Mar 8, 2009)

I too love Peco turnouts.They are very reliable and will last nearly forever.I have yet to see one fail.Another big point is that other than connecting the wires,their complete installation can be done standing up (surface instal) when using Peco's twincoils.I'm 62 and have lost some of my mobility and crawling under the layout is something I try to keep to a minimum.
Tortoise systems are mighty fine indeed but are more complicated to install.They probably are the best option with some brands of turnouts (Atlas,Shinohara,etc) and shine even more if you need to power the frogs.But with Peco turnouts,even this isn't needed with clean tracks.


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## britblad (Jan 2, 2012)

Well like i said im gona buy one and see if it will work with my switcher and my speeder if it dose i will have to buy more but i do plan to switch them with a tortoise since i have almost 20 left


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I do not use the tortoise, the fallowing might not be correct. With the tortoise you will want to remove the spring that is in the middle of the track on the Peco turnouts. Check into that and see if that is correct.


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## Brakeman Jake (Mar 8, 2009)

Absolutely correct.The small rod supplied with the Tortoise isn't stiff enough to move Peco turnouts if the spring isn't removed.


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