I am using CVP's Easy DCC. Currenlty I have a large single loop and i have just added a dead end siding. the problem I'm having is that when when my loco crosses the frog when attempting to use the siding the system shorts. I am using a Peco insulfrog which is suppose to be DCC freindly. When the switch is in the closed position and the loco is running on the main everything is fine. This happens when using both my locos (Atlas GP7 and Bachmann 2-8-0 Cosolidation). I am new to the hobby and this is driving me crazy. I was hoping some one could shed some light on this form me.

thanks,

Pete L

-- Peter Lokuta (plokuta@ilx.com), October 21, 1998

Answers

Pete

Try http://members.aol.com/locochaser/switches.htm and find Suggestion #2.12a.

Mansfield

-- Mansfield (gofigure@zianet.com), October 23, 1998.

Peter,

The insulfrog is DCC ready. But I can not tell from your message what the actual problem might be. But it would appear to be one of two possibles here. Pending on what you actually mean by shorting out.

Either you do not have any power going to the siding track, and only the loco going into the siding stops.

Or you have power, have insulated gaps on the siding connecting to the turnout, and have it wired in reverse polarity. Here when a loco crosses the gaps, it shorts out the booster and the whole layout under that booster stops.

Don

--

Remember Always Have Fun and Enjoy!, Don Crano Akron, Oh NMRA #096211 mailto:donc@sssnet.com Visit Model Railroading with DCC at: http://pages.sssnet.com/donc/

-- Don Crano (donc@sssnet.com), October 24, 1998.

Peter,

I had the exact problem this weekend. What is happening is that the wheel treads are bridging the two frog rails at the point of the frog, causing the short. This is probably due to a minor variation in rail heights in the frog. My guess is that the problem you have is due to the frog rail that is part of your mainline. You can prove it by putting a bit of scotch tape on the mainline frog rail at the point of the frog and then running through to the siding. If there is no short, then you have found your problem. I fixed mine by lightly filing the rail heads to slope toward each other. This prevents the wheel treads from bridging the rails.

Dale Gloer

-- Dale Gloer (dgloer@ca.ibm.com), November 15, 1999.