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After Years of Learning and Using the 3 Rail AC Electrical Wiring I now Need Help to Learn DC Wiring for my On30 section, Particularly with Turnouts

PG Paul GOGR Forum Member

Hello, everybody!   Now that I am starting an ON30 section on my layout I found that I needed to understand DC wiring if I wanted to install turnouts on my layout.   I purchased and started reading The Complete Atlas Wiring Book.   At the risk of exposing my total lack of knowledge, regarding the use of turnouts,  the book talks about insulated and uninsulated frogs.   While I understand the concept, in spite of all my on-line research, I am unable to determine if the Bachmann E-Z Track switches that I have been using, (although considered by many serious HO modelers as the "Timex" of HO track they have proved to be extremely reliable and they do their job very well), have insulated or uninsulated frogs.    

PG 

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TG The GN ManOGR Forum Member

I got my start with the original "How to Wire Your Model Railroad" by Linn Westcott when I got into N scale in 1967.  I don't know for certain if the EZ Track switches have insulated frogs (they probably do to keep it simple for the user) but it should be easy to determine with a voltmeter or ohm-meter. At any rate, if they work for HO they should be fine for ON30.  The main thing to watch for in DC track work is in reversing loops or wyes, where insulation is required to prevent rails of opposite polarity from connecting to each other.  

PG Paul GOGR Forum Member
Thank you!   In the meanwhile, I wrote to an old acquaintance from when I was involved in an ON30 forum, Chris Lane, (by some considered a maven on the Bachmann E-Z Track system), perhaps you know him and he wrote back advising the following:  
 
The answer is a qualified depends. If it is black roadbed, those are insulated frogs. All the gray roadbed track have metal frogs and must be treated accordingly. But you will still need to gap the rails on each side of the track and install a reversing switch. That diagram for straight DC SHOULD be in the Atlas book. 

 
In other words since I am using the gray roadbed, I think they should be treated as uninsulated.   Does that make sense to you? 
 
PG
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