Peco Insulfrog Nscale Turnout Short?

[Herc Driver]

Hi Guys,

I know there's been similar topic threads like this one...but I've got a problem I can't solve so allow me to ask for advice again.

I'm using Peco Insulfrog turnouts and on some of the turnouts as a metal wheel passes over the area where the Through Rail and Divergent Rail nearly meet, I'm getting a short as the metal wheel rolls by. The exact point where the two rails meet rests in an insulated piece of plastic that helps direct the wheel along the desired track. I've tried filing down as much material on the outside of both rails as I dare to widen the area between the two separate tracks. Still, I get a short. So now I'm wondering...is there something I can put on the tracks that will insulate that tiny area of track? Clear nail polish? Paint? Glue?

From the research I've done, the Peco's are great operationally, but not exactly NMRA standard when it comes to their rail guides and other components of the turnout and switching mechanism. The gauge of the rails is less than 1mm more narrow than the Atlas Flex track it joins to. So I've already decreased the height of the plastic wheel guides to prevent the truck from rolling up and over the guide. This short problem (a audible and visible spark) has me baffled though.

Any ideas? 'Cuz I'm fresh out.

[rrinker]

The spacing between the rails is too small - ie, the insulator is not big enough. The traditional approach has been to put a coat of fingernail polish over the area where it shorts, but that will eventually wear off and need to be renewed. A more pernanent fix is shown on Allan Gartner's Wiring for DCC site: http://www.wiringfordcc.com/switches_peco.htm Scroll down to the "Solving shorts in the Peco Insulfrog turnouts" section which is just a little down from the top of the page.

--Randy

[Herc Driver]

Great find Randy! This is precisely where I'm having that problem. I've been filing that area and have removed a lot of material (in Nscale terms that is) and don't want to completely ruin the rail by filing it all away. So I might try to cover that tiny spot with a very light coat of nail polish and see if that remedies the problem.

Thanks a lot for this information...it was exactly what I was looking for.

[BR60103]

I have a different viewpoint: I don't think that the open point and the rail though the frog should be powered. I put insulating joiners after the frog, just like electrofrog turnouts, so that no current seeps back from the track beyond. I usually rely on the point blades to carry current but I use the switch machine contacts if a problem develops.

[rrinker]

I thought of that but I don't see how that would eliminate the problem of a wheel bridging the two rails at the insulator - unless you compeltely tear out all the jumpers and make it so that both rails between the frog and the gaps you cut are the same polarity, which does not look easy - and in which case I would say, just use an Electrofrog since it's already set up that way.

--Randy

[poliss]

The back to back distance between the wheels might be too big. Buy a Micro-Trains Coupler Height Gauge to check it.