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!
