IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
I've recently noticed some weird behavior on one of my turnouts. Whenever a locomotive's leading truck goes over the frog, it stops for ~1 second, the headlight blinks [like a flash bulb on a camera], then it continues onward as if nothing happened. If I run an MU'd set, each loco in the consist will pause and flash when its front truck passes over the offending frog. They only do this when they are moving in the "merging" (trailing-point) direction: when they go the opposite way (diverging / facing-point), everything works fine.
The culprit is a 20-year-old Atlas #4 left-hand turnout with an aluminum frog, which I covered in brown latex paint to make it look less toy-like. Could that have caused the problem? [I've always thought latex paint was more of an insulator than a conductor.] In any event, I have ripped out that t/o and plan to replace it with a Peco #5 Insulfrog - hopefully that will cure the problem.
I'm just wondering if any of you have had a similar experience and found what caused it...
The culprit is a 20-year-old Atlas #4 left-hand turnout with an aluminum frog, which I covered in brown latex paint to make it look less toy-like. Could that have caused the problem? [I've always thought latex paint was more of an insulator than a conductor.] In any event, I have ripped out that t/o and plan to replace it with a Peco #5 Insulfrog - hopefully that will cure the problem.
I'm just wondering if any of you have had a similar experience and found what caused it...