When most people think of model railways, they tend to picture popular scales like O, OO or N gauge, which dominate...
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Are electrofrog points better than insulfrog points?
Using electrofrog points on a layout will undoubtedly result in improved reliability for the locomotives that traverse them. That's thanks to there being virtually no dead or isolated parts on the turnout, unlike insulfrog points which can have a dead spot of a centimetre or more long just waiting to stall smaller locos.
So purely from the perspective of electrical continuity, electrofrog points are better. Where they do lose the interest of some modellers, is the complexity they introduce to the layout's circuitry.
Electrofrog turnouts will in most circumstances still require a degree of isolation to avoid a short circuit being caused where the outer rail crosses the inner rail as the two routes diverge. This is usually done using isolating rail joiners and a power feed to tracks beyond the turnout. A simple enough job but one that puts some off nonetheless.
For those who do not like the sound of playing with electrics, insulfrog points provide the perfect plug and play solution, and that makes the 'which is best' score about even.
So in summary, the question should not be which is best? but more which is best for you? If you like the idea of improved conductivity and engines that don't stall on points at slow speeds, electrofrog is the way to go, but you will need to think a little about how to wire them. If, on the other hand, you just want to run some trains at the weekend with your family for a bit of fun, insulfrogs allows you to just get on with it, the choice is yours!
Posted in: Tracks
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