" To Be Or Not To Be ".....Questions on powering a Atlas Code 83 frog ?

[Freight Train]

Finally getting ready to order the Atlas code 83 track but have questions on whether it's nessasary to power the frogs or leave them be.  I know running standard DC you can get away without powering the frogs but have read something's that DCC  can be finicking in this area having a insulated section in the track. How do you guys deal with this issue and do you ( or do you not) power the Atlas code 83 turnouts ? The two engines I currently have are both Atlas Gold Alco C-425 and a EMD SD-35. I would really like to hear your suggetions.

[peteski]

I'm not sure where all these misconceptions originate.

The DCC friendliness has nothing to do with powering the frogs. It is about having opposite polarities on parts of the turnout where they are close enough for the locomotive's wheels contacting bot pieces, creating a short.

In most cases (at least in N scale which I am into) this problem exists at the rails which exit the frog.  Also if both points are hardwired together (have the same polarity) the back of the wheel can touch the open point (iff the distance between the open point and stock rail is not wide enough) causing a short.

Frogs are powered for reliability reason (both in DC and DCC).  I would say power your frogs. 

These are all generic properties of turnouts in any scale. I don't know the specifics of the Atlas C83 H0 turnouts.  If there is something quirky about these, maybe someone specifically familiar with these will chime in.

[Freight Train]

Hi Peteski.....thanks for chiming in ! The Atlas code 83 frogs are metal, one solid cast piece and separate from all the rails. They do have small hole post to the side where they can be powered if needed. The rails going up to the frog on both sides are separate and insulated from each other so shorting isn't a problem. Not manufactured like Peco turnouts were you have to insulate the turnout from the rest of the track as rails bring to polarities together. I've looked at that track and even though it looks great it kind of seems a bit of a headache in insulating and wiring problems. One of the reasons I want to use Atlas Code 83 for looks and easier to setup. I just been reading and seeing YouTube videos saying you have to power the frog ? Which had raised questions on if I really need to do this or not ? Theoretically I would think if the track is powered from all sides of a turnout sans reverse loops and such not powering the frog shouldn't be a issue. Never was when I did HO in the past with standard DC but since I doing DCC for the first time just want to make sure I can cure a hic up before it happens. 😉

[peteski]

o maximize reliability you would power the frog. But if it is short enough not to affect locomotive's electric pickup then you can leave it it un-powered. Both DC and DCC pick up electricity the same way and both will stall if they hit the dead spot. The only difference between DC and DCC operation is the DCC's sensitivity to shorts (which trips the electronic breaker in the booster causing a momentary drop of power).   Where DC powered trains will simply coast through momentary shorts, the same momentary shorts like that will cause the loco to stop (since the decoder will need to reinitialize when the power is cut by the sensitive breaker in the booster).

But dead spots in the track will not affect a DCC train any differently than a DC train.  Actually if the DCC train has a keep-alive circuit, the DCC train will keep going through a rather sizable dead spot where a DC train would stop in its tracks.