12-30-2011, 10:51 AM
If you are having problems with Peco, any other ready made turnout will be worse! At this time only turnouts made with Fast Tracks jigs or turnou kits from the Proto87 Stores meet NMRA specs. Part of the problem is that the NMRA specs for turnouts is ambiguous and difficult for the manufacturers to understand. The Peco is the closest ready made to NMRA specs. The problem of "wheel drop" in the frog is made worse by larger size turnouts. It seems that the larger the frog size, the bigger the gap. Use your NMRA gauge and make the track spacing at the frog exactly at the minimum clearance on the gauge, then shim the guard rails with styrene so that they will grab any wheel and hold it tight to the stock rail when traversing the frog. Finally, make a styrene point and glue it into the frog between the straight and diverging route to narrow the gap. Even on an Electro Frog you are only talking about a 1/4 inch insulator, so it should not effect electrical pick up.