Reverse Running
A
confession – I run
with dead frogs on
the BC&SJ...
Some say this is bad, bad,
bad. However, I’ve used dead
(unpowered) turnout frogs
for the last 14 years and
there are a
lot
of them on the
current BC&SJ – 34 in main
staging alone.
No, I don’t run Docksiders
(0-4-0 steam) or critters. Their
ultra-short wheelbases would
guarantee stalls over my #6 and #8 dead frogs.
Yes, locos should have a significant number of (or all) wheel
sets picking up power from the rails, and they should pick it
up from both rails. That means some brass steamers which
don’t pick up from both rails on all wheels won’t work well
on the Bear Creek. I’ve solved that problem. I don’t own and
operate many brass steamers. Besides, any old brass should
probably be re-motored and re-geared and re-pickuped to
make them run more smoothly and to get the max current
rating down from the 1-1/2 amps their open frame motors
draw when stalled.
Typical locos on the BC&SJ are ‘50s era diesels and plastic
steam. The shortest wheelbase is a Proto 2000 0-8-0 (which
had problems because it’s a first gen unit with no power pickup
in the tender – for now it’s a piece of scenery until I get the
Reverse Running: Stepping outside the box with a contrary view
by Charlie Comstock
Dead frog society
time to add power pickup to the tender). Kato NW2 switchers
(and thus presumably SW-1 to SW-? switchers) work fine. Kato
RS-2 and RSC-2 units work fine. Proto 1000 RS-2 units work
fine. BLI USRA lite 2-8-2, E7A, and AC-4 locos operate fine (with
no sound hiccups on my dead frogs). Stewart F7s run fine, but
the 1st gen SoundTraxx sound in them hiccups a lot – but it
hiccups on track without turnouts, too. My Proto 2000 SD7s
(about 12 years old) run fine as does an Atlas GP7.
So! If you like extra wiring, complexity, and expense, by all
means go ahead and add micro-switches to all your turnouts.
If you’re rolling in dollars, use frog juicers. Or if in your wildest
dreams you think there is the slimmest chance of running 0-4-
0T engines or critters, then power in your frogs isn’t optional
– it’s mandatory. Or you could convert to cell-phone-battery
powered, radio-control locos and not bother with powering
frogs (or any other rails).
Or maybe we should go back to running power routing (pre-
DCC friendly era) turnouts. They had powered frogs to begin
with. We moved away from them because running a loco into
the non-selected route creates short circuits which crowbar
boosters, stopping everything in that power district (and other
problems). But if you power your frogs through a micro-switch
you’ll have that same crowbar-an-entire-power-district issue. If
that’s a big problem for you, then dead frogs may be an answer
(or pay the $$$ for Frog Juicers from Tam Valley).
Plastic diesels (and steamers) from Atlas, BLI, Kato, Athearn,
etc. aren’t going to have problems with unpowered frogs
unless you have a ladder built with dead frogs spaced a loco
wheelbase from each other (and you can always power those
frogs that really need it).
There’s enough to do on a model railroad without doing more
than is really needed!
MRH-Sep 2014
