22
23
Up the Creek Column - 9
22: Here’s the turnout spiked in place, ties trimmed,
and gaps cut in the rails to electrically isolate the frog.
The surface of each PC tie must also be gapped to pre-
vent shorts. I use a jeweler’s file to make a gap in the
PC tie surface. Be careful, sometimes what looks like
a gap in the PC tie foil isn’t “clean” gaps. All it takes is
a stray whisker of copper too small to be easily visible
to make a short. The first attempt to run a train through
this turnout failed. When the lead loco reached the frog,
a short circuit materialized resulting in several minutes
of scrutinizing the gaps in the foil. If you can’t find the
problem visually, try going over all the gaps again. A
few minutes of filing on the PC ties and the train sailed
through with no more shorts.
23: Paul Mack watches our first train heading through
the soon to be yard on the brand new mainline.
MRH-Feb 2013
