I am starting to lay my track and I have several of the above turnouts. When reading the package it talks about polarizing the metal frog. Should I do this automatically to avoid a problem down the road in case I use a short locomotive so to avoid taking the turnout back out the the layout? The layout for now is DC.
Its is your call.
Polarizing the frog is necessary to run short locomotives. Damage to locomotive or decoder may occur if you change to DCC control and experience short circuit in the turnout.
To help you decide - Set up temporary section of track without the frog polarized and test run all your locomotives on it.
What would some examples of short locomotives be in steam and diesel>
The issue is the number and position of working electrical pickups. Are the pickups such that they don't span the length of the dead frog, thus losing all electrical pickup from one rail?
Understand about the pickup. Would I cause any harm by polarizing the turnouts as a matter of fact instead of having to take them up since I currently am DC but will be switching to DCC and do not know what kind of loco power I will be purchasing? Thank you Hunt.
Quote from: Penn1974 on September 05, 2015, 10:55:59 AM
Would I cause any harm by polarizing the turnouts as a matter of fact instead of having to take them up since I currently am DC but will be switching to DCC and do not know what kind of loco power I will be purchasing?
The only problem when I polarized my frogs was in the yard. I for the life of me could not figure out why it would short when I threw the
SWITCH. I have since then removed all frog wiring (depolarizing them) and have not had any problems thus far. I have as small as the 0-6-0 (one 0-6-0 has no pickup's in the tender which would help if needed) to the SD70ACE and plenty in between and have not had a pickup issue yet.
Hope this helps.
Jerry
Quote from: Penn1974 on September 05, 2015, 10:55:59 AM
Understand about the pickup. Would I cause any harm by polarizing the turnouts as a matter of fact instead of having to take them up since I currently am DC but will be switching to DCC and do not know what kind of loco power I will be purchasing? Thank you Hunt.
Penn1974, to power or not power the frog is your call.
Powering the frog in a Bachmann turnout is
not recommended by Bachmann when the turnout is used in a DCC powered layout.
Thanks to Jerrys HO and Hunt. I will not polarize the turnouts.