Electro frog points isolation on the uttering ton light railway

[B.Meldon]

It is easy to avoid short circuits, just change the points to the correct direction!

Brian Meldon

[Gerhard Novak]

Agreed, problem is I know my brain...  :)

[Gerhard Novak]

Just to show what I ment earlier - I have here the longest engine I onw - actually it is a DMU as used in the 80th of the last century in Austria. Also it is SG and not NG - but the wiring problem is the same. I put insulating fishplates in where the 2 yellow arrows are pointing to - it is about an inch longer then the wheelbase of the DMU. Of course, if I drive around with 140km/h I will still create a short. But as over points the speed restriction is normally 40km/h in Austria it should stop before making a short.

IMGP5343 by Gerhard Novak, on Flickr

[tedp]

For those interested, here is a simple wiring guide to electrofrog points. Your own track layout, rail breaks and basic wiring can be traced back to this diagram.



Electrofrog points always reverse the polarity, which is no problem in sidings or if you only need to switch the frog and a short section of rail next to it.

Note that isolated sections needed to stop a running train should be switched off without reversing the polarity. If you want to use the points to do this, you need an extra switch fitted to the point motor which powers a separate isolated track section.