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What are electrofrog points?
Electrofrog points are model railway turnouts with no isolated sections.
Regular turnouts require a small plastic isolated section to avoid a short circuit where the outer rail passes over the inner rail as the route diverges. The isolated section consists of a small black triangular plastic insert at the tip of the frog.
Electrofrog turnouts do not have such a feature, meaning the right-hand rail (when approaching the turnout from the heel end) joins directly to the left-hand rail of the converging route. Although that all-metal effect undoubtedly appears more prototypical, it would create a short circuit on a model railway.
That may leave the uninitiated wondering why electrofrog turnouts are used, or even why they exist in the first place. But it's that all-metal, and therefore, all-live quality of the turnout that is attractive. With no isolated section, locomotives perform more reliably when traversing the turnout. That can be especially beneficial when using DCC as even small gaps in power has the potential to upset decoders. But what about short circuits?
When using electrofrog turnouts, a short circuit is avoided by using special isolating rail joiners at the heel end of the turnout. These provide the isolation required without compromising the surface area of rail available to deliver power to locomotives.
If you are thinking of trying electrofrog turnouts for yourself, don't forget to reintroduce power to sections of track placed after any isolating joiners by installing a couple of feeder wires from the main track circuit.
Posted in: Tracks
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