TTS and Points.

[shezza12]

Hi, I am a newbie to the forum and revisting model railways after a break of over forty years.

So as you can imagine an awful lot has changed in that time, I am in the process of building a DCC railway and am planning the track, on talking to someone in a model shop I was told that the new TTS system will NOT have problems with stuttering or sound drop out on Peco insul points does anyone know if this is true?  

[Howbi]

@shezza12............Welcome to the Forum............Hornby TTS sound decoders are not fitted with stay-alive capacitors so they will behave the same as other decoders without S-A across any points so what you were told is misleading........HB

[2e0dtoeric]

It depends on what the loco is!

If it is an 0-6-0- shunter type, then they will stutter and stall on a dc track, just as much as a DCC one of either variety. It is all to do with the wheelbase, and number of pick-ups. The more wheels (and pickups) the less likely that ALL wheels will be on a 'dead' patch at the same time (the plastic frog).

[Chrissaf]

Could your retailer have been thinking of PECO Electrofrogs. These have metal rather than plastic frog parts and can be helpful in reducing power drop out as locos traverse them. Electrofrogs, are however, a little bit more onerous to use as they have specific wiring requirements compared to Insulfrogs.

[Chrissaf]

Roger, my sincere apologies. I was replacing my previous reply with this one as my edit window was lost with the 'you have been logged out forum error issue'. I accidentally clicked the wrong screen icon and hid your post in error (instead of my previous timed out one). Once hidden, I cannot bring it back. Really sorry about that, it was an absolutely genuine error on my part and was not done maliciously.

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For others reading, Roger's (RogRJ) reply (that I accidentally hid) was pointing out that Peco Electrofrogs work out of the box and just need Insulated Rail Joiners to work. And that frog power switching was optional.

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Roger, Just for clarity, in my comment I was in fact referring to the need for insulated rail joiners. Plus in more complex layouts, the locations where the insulated rail joiners are fitted need (in my view) a slightly higher level of knowledge and experience, if adequate DCC power distribution is to be consistent throughout all parts of the layout.

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This (in my view) does make the use of Peco Electrofrogs a little more onerous to use than Insulfrogs, even without the optional frog power switching.

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[Fishmanoz]

There are plenty of recents threads in the General section where people point out that they have no problem with stuttering over insulfrog points, Hornby and Peco, as long as they ensure the points are laid dead flat, the wheels don't lift over the frog due to its being too shallow (use needle file to make it deeper if so), and all pickups are tensioned correctly onto the wheels.  And that works at least down to 0-6-0s. 

 

That's not not to say that electrofrogs are not more reliable, and electrofogs with frog switching better again, particularly for DCC where even momentary shorts can be a problem.  Try googling DCC friendly points and you'll get chapter and verse complete with animated diagrams.