dcc power clips

[radar63]

hi folks i will be building my first layout in the next few months i just need to know if i need to use point clips as well as soldering dropper wires to the wiring bus or should i swap hornby points for electrofrog points?  

[jane1707819582]

no you should not need both clips and droppers ,but having both will not be detrimental to your layout.

i cannot help with the electrofrog points all mine are insulated ,best to decide now which points you want to use ,

my issues with the insulated is sometimes ,locos can stall on insulated points 

[96RAF]

Just be aware the sole purpose of those point clips is just to enable continuity across the whole layout.

 

What you must avoid - and this is where bus wires and droppers come in - is relying solely on these clips to carry power across to an extensive length of track beyond the point with the clip, as you could be expecting these tiny staples to pass a considerable current, enough to run several locos and accessories beyond the point.

 

The forum has reported instances of clips getting so hot that points were melting due to this happening.

[Gitter]

I had 2 sets of points melting with the power clips. I use a  bus with droppers. Forget the clips. If you want to start a fire , go and buy a box of firelighters.  Back then ( I will risk saying ) most of us were not as experienced with dcc as we are now. Fortunately we have on the the forum a lot of experienced guys from whom we can source good advice.

[96RAF]

The point clips are really only for powering a siding not a complete extra loop. In the end a proper power bus is a much better idea, even though folk will report sucessfully running a double garage sized layout powered from a single press-in power clip and point clips.

[Chrissaf]

Insulfrog vs Electrofrog......a Marmite question.

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Personally I prefer Electrofrog....I would I suppose.....I use them......they have many advantages such as improved slow running of locos and better support for locos with short wheelbases or limited wheel electrical pickups. If the full switched frog modification is implemented, then point short circuits can be eliminated.

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But be aware of the cons as well.

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Firstly, assuming the Peco brand Electrofrog. They use completely different geometry to Hornby insulfrog points. The Hornby track system is designed on track spacing of 67mm. The Peco Electrofrogs are designed for track spacing of nominally 50mm. This means that if you maintain this 50mm spacing you need much bigger radius curves than those of Hornby. This means having a large layout area with a large baseboard. There is a 'workaround' for this (the one I have implemented) and that is to use Code 100 Peco Electrofrog points and where they face each other to create a cross-over between loops, insert a 79mm Peco ST202 short track piece between the facing points. This increases the track spacing to the Hornby 67mm standard.

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Secondly, PECO Electrofrog points are longer than Hornby points, thus they take up more space in a small layout. Particularly if the ST202 track pieces I mentioned above are used.

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Thirdly, although they can be used 'straight out of the box' as is. To get the maximum benefit of Electrofrog points then I recommend implementing the full 'switched frog' modification. It is an easy mod for most, but modellers who struggle to understand the wiring of a plug, may struggle with this mod. And based upon some of the electrical questions I see and respond to on this forum there are many on here that I consider fall into that category.

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Want to know more about the different types of Peco track for 00 Gauge layouts then follow this link.

https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/another-b2b-question/?p=1

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[radar63]

hi thanks for the advice on point clips i will stick to the bus wire and droppers as for the points i was thinking of using bachman non isolating standard points to replace the hornby standard points and peco streamline medium points to replace the hornby express points my plan uses for crossing from loop to loop would this work ok?  

[Howbi]

The Bachmann non-isolating standard points do not need point clips, they are prewired for DCC..........HB

[Fishmanoz]

If I could hazard a summary whilst avoiding Marmite (where I come from, the liking and promoting of Vegemite is mandatory):

 

Getting Started:

 

Including your first pinned down layout up to a couple of loops and some sidings - DCC point clips are likely to work fine for some time, noting their current-carrying limitations as above and that very long term this is likely to be made worse with some corrosion developing. Melting points can happen but rare (including gitter above, I can remember only 2 users with melted points on these forums, the other being yelrow).

 

Points - insulfrogs do and will work for many but have the risk of stopping by short wheel base locos at low speeds particularly if points are not dead flat (need pinning in the middle).  Remember the different geometry of some when thinking of mix and match.

 

Best Practice:

 

DCC Bus and Droppers - at regular intervals up to every track piece (some say) soldered to the rails not the rail joiners.

 

Electrofrog points with frog switching - should eliminate all slow running problems and possibility of shorts when running across the frogs.