Large Scale Central

Down and dirty fix for bumpy Aristo turnouts

Problem Solving
#1

The frogs on my Aristocraft turnouts (10’ Xtra large) were bouncing my little 0-4-0 Porter almost off the track. The obvious problem was either, the flanges on the little Bachman engine were bottoming out on the plastic frog or the frog was taller than the track.

My quick fix with the turnout in place with a Dremmel tool to solve this problem:

For the flange-ways I used a plastic cutting wheel on a EZ Change collete to carefully relieve enough plastic to allow a smooth passage.

Then to carve down the top of the frog, to be level with the track, I used the Dremmel again with the router base attachment and a 3/4" blue-gray flat bottom grinding stone. I set the stone flush with the router base on the diverging tracks, off the area of the frog, then carefully leveled the frog height with the track. I have a very slight scuffing on the track adjacent to the frog which could be resolved by using a thin piece of paper to gauge the set of the stone above the track.

Voila! A smooth passage for the little Porter and four wheel caboose. Why wasn’t this done right from the factory?

#2

You could also go to the Aristo site and they will sell you a new frog for a dollar that fixes the problem. They found out after that run and are offering the part at shipping cost of a dollar. I have gotten 20 for my trun outs.

#3

Thanks for the info Geoff. I should have asked before I did the research and the work.

#4

Doing the work still saved you a buck a switch. Now a days, any dollar saved is good.
Ralph

#5

Geoff-
Absolute curiosity: Each shipped “frog” costs $1.00 to ship?
My guess is twenty of the lil’ plastic rascals would weigh…uh, maybe two ounces.
Your thought?
Wendell

#6
Wendell Hanks said:
Geoff- Absolute curiosity: Each shipped "frog" costs $1.00 to ship? My guess is twenty of the lil' plastic rascals would weigh....uh, maybe two ounces. Your thought? Wendell
From what they said on the Aristo site the cost was to cover shipping. I'm just going on what I was told on there forum. But if you break it down with any one who makes train stuff is there realy 500.00 worth of stuff in a Loco? 100 + in cars and is there realy 8 dollars in a one foot peice of brass track?

1 dollar for the fix seems fine for me. I did dyrmell them out before I found out about the part and am now going to replace them.

#7

The fix I did works good, but I ordered the frogs anyway. Maybe they will work gooder.

#8

Yep, the new ones are better because of 2 reasons:

  1. The frog now sits flush with the adjacent wheels.
  2. The flangeway depth is 3 mm.

If you still have problems with your loco, you have the deepest flanges in the world, and should grind them down, 3mm is HUGE!

The frogs are free, just $1 shipping each.

Or the frogs are $1 each and the shipping is free.

Pretty tricky of Polk, sounds cheap at first, only a dollar. Then you get $20 of them and you pay $20 shipping when shipping would only be $5 normally.

The best thing to do is place twenty individual orders… nah, just joking… don’t want to bankrupt Aristo

Regards, Greg

#9

No Greg I think I would order them individually. They screwed up and should be willing to fix the problem at no cost to the consumer. Didn’t they do a few basic mearsurements on the prototype to determine if everything was up to snuff? :wink:
Randy

#10

well they admitted there was a problem and came up with a fix. Yes it cost you a dollar per to get it fixed but hay there are others that still will not admitt to problems let alone come up with a fix at any cost.

#11

WoW! I took Geoff’s advice and ordered Aristo’s replacement frogs back on the 13th. They came in today’s mail. That is what I call good customer service.

#12
David Hill said:
WoW! I took Geoff's advice and ordered Aristo's replacement frogs back on the 13th. They came in today's mail. That is what I call good customer service.
Glade your happy. I will be putting the ones I got in when I get back home in April. From what they said on the forum it should be a easy install