Fast Tracks

My triple-deck layout will need a lot of turnout actuators and from my research, the bullfrog is the only commercial turnout actuator which works...

So I bought six. Built my first one and have it installed and not terribly impressed with the fact that the amount of effort needed to overcome the ballbearing "lock" is about to break the bullfrog. If I push the ballbearing into the spring just a little bit, the effort is much closer to what Tim uses in the videos.

Any thoughts? Will incorrect assembly allow this to happen? Or any ideas as to how to fix this?

Jon

First I would disconnect the control rod from the bull frog and check the operation, as the issue may not be in the bull frog. Incorrect assembly could be the issue, but it would be best to check the easy things first.

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Now waiting for a better currency exchange rate before I order.

So to close off the topic, there were a couple things we did to get the bullfrogs to work better:

1) The wax on the rubbing surfaces does actually help, A LOT.
2) I also cut a revolution out of the spring pushing on the ball bearing.

With both of these steps done in addition to the directions, everything is now working wonderfully on the first two that I've built.

I also found that marking each of the two large base plates (not the ones up against the wood, but down near the bottom of the switch machine) to make sure that I identify which side goes which way up will eliminate a painful mistake of putting it in upside down and then having to pull the parts apart and putting them back together...

Jon