Peco turnouts

I used electrofrog Peco turnouts on my layout and I did make then DCC friendly. I am a fan of powering the frog for  N scale locomotives, especially if you plan to use any short wheelbase switchers. I need to go back and look at Popp's book. I throught he had done some modification to the turnouts but I could be wrong.

Anyway, I isolated the frog.. wired that to the tortoise.. and wired the points to bonds so each rail was the correct polarity and I was no longer relying on contact with a rail to provide power.

I belong to an N scale group.. all of the layouts have powered frogs. However, most of the guys use atlas product.

At the very least, I would isolate the frog and wire the points to their respective rails. This will at least provide more reliable power through the point rails. The utility of powering the frog is perhaps debatable. Maybe before I strip down my layout I will remove the frog wires and see how it runs.

Chris

Powered frogs

Thank you for your  answer! I'm quite sure Popp doesn't make any modification.

If you isolate the frog and solder jumpers to the rails, then you have to feed the frog some how. The result - a DCC-wired turnout!

Since I use electrofrog, the frog is always powered, even though it's via the points on an unmodified turnout.

You don't have to

Not really. A dead frog is DCC friendly. The only question is whether it is N scale friendly. Something I would test were I to build in N scale again. In the absence of sound decoders, the only reason I do it is to make sure there is no hesitation when moving over the turnout at slow speed.

Lets not confuse steps we take to avoid shorts with steps we take to improve the operation.

You may want to look at the atlas code 55 product. Its a very very good product and much more affordable. I have moved to HO because of my developing interest in early steam.. but I was in the process of getting rid of my N peco stuff. While it is well made I am not fond of working with the thick rail.. I don't consider the part that extends into the tie to be "better", just more rail to cut and file. I also find the flex track is very springy and its hard to get the ties aligned nicely on a curve. The atlas product the ties are cut on one side so you can always have the "cut" tie on the inside of the curve. The spacing and design is North American prototype. My experience with the layouts my friends are building is that Atlas' 5-7-10 turnout progression is very well suited to N scale. A caveat.. I have no direct experience other then a few things I have done at work sessions and my observations... your mileage may vary!

Regards,

Chris