Ed, I guess you're not counting gaps on the diverging side of a frog or else passing tracks become difficult.
I can understand where you can get by without gaps on the point side of a frog. My old layout was DCC (analog CC originally) and I had 50+ turnouts with without gaps on the point side of the frog, but I had gaps on the diverging side because I ran a feeder to every piece of rail. While it works, I don't feel it is the best method, at least not for me. Gapping the point side of the frog allows for two advantages besides the shorts issue, which, as you know, can be solved other ways. One is you can move the point rail closer to the stock rail, which improves the appearance of the turnout. The second is that you can wire the point rail to its stock rail electrically. This means that you are not dependent on the contact of the point on its stock rail for electrical power. I have seen many cases where this issue has caused stopped trains on other people's layouts, especially where they were using turnouts for power routing. Like I said before, stub turnouts must have the frog gapped on both sides because there are no points to switch polarity. On my layout under construction, most of the turnouts will be stubs. Gauge separation turnouts in dual gauge track also must have isolated frogs since they don't require any moving parts. So there are situations where a frog must be isolated, it's just that they don't exist on your layout, but will on mine. And not all frogs need gaps. I have some dual gauge turnouts that only need gaps around two of the three frogs and the two that require gaps can actually be gapped and switched together. Of course, if we all ran radio-controlled battery-powered trains, we wouldn't need to worry about track wiring at all. String powered trains also save on wiring. Dave Heine Easton, PA -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 7:56 PM To: [email protected] Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: Cutting Gaps at Frogs > So you will need to isolate your frogs. > Dick Karnes Dick...As much as I respect you, you are incorrect when you state that isolated frogs are "needed". Isolated frogs are but one alternative among many and may not even be the best in some circumstances. Isolated frogs are optional -- just like DCC and nickel-silver rail and Kadee couplers and brass imported locomotives. There is an S layout in my house with 76 non-isolated frogs and nary a short circuit to date traceable to the frogs. Cheers...Ed L. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
