Turnout Selection

I had already decided to PECO turnouts exclusively.  To allow for short-wheel based locomotives, I had to use their Electrofrog turnouts (the Unifrog design was not yet available).  

I committed to installing a frog juicer at each turnout to simplify the wiring needed to automatically switch frog polarity.  There are many ways to switch the frog polarity.  I felt using the frog juicer was the easiest and most foolproof approach.  Others may disagree.

I committed to installing the new Twistlock switch machines on every turnout.  I wanted to avoid ever having to manually throw a turnout, so as to avoid risking breaking something during the reach.  The Twistlock switch machines had just come out when I began my construction so I was very lucky to have them available.  Their installation process seemed pretty easy and they seemed especially easy to swap out later, which was a big appeal to me.

Preparing Turnouts for Installation

I chose to install all turnouts first, making sure that each one worked perfectly, before installing any flex track.  There are many techniques offered in various forums and videos describing how to install turnouts. 

However, in preparing to lay my first PECO turnout, I found there were some “best practices” around how to prepare the turnout for installation.  To help others, I created the following video to describe and demonstrate what I think are things you should do before installing a PECO Electrofrog turnout.