Over on his blog, Modeling the SP, Tony Thompson maintains a thread he calls Electrical Wars. When I read these posts, as well as the accompanying Trackwork Wars, I immediately feel a sense of comradeship. We all struggle with short circuits and tight gauge, but not many do it quite so openly.
I brought in Fast Tracks BullFrogs to align the switches on Pembroke, and for the most part I’ve been happy with them. They come with a micro switch to positively route power to the frog, which is something you want with little engines like mine. Now, most of the time those micro switches work, but they do very occasionally require adjustment (I’ve had problems with only three over ten years). When out of alignment, they positively route the wrong power to the frog, yielding a dead short.
With a layout built atop desks and bookshelves, working under the layout requires contortions that are getting more difficult with every piece of apple pie. My Darling Wife bought me enough Hex Frog Juicers for my birthday to power all the remaining frogs on the layout. They’ve sat for almost three months even though one out-of-the-way Bullfrog wanted adjusting. With the crowd coming over on Wednesday, I thought I’d better fix it.
Getting past the monitor and into the corner of the benchwork where I could screw the circuit board to a piece of lumber took a Cirque-du-Soleil-level-performance. However, it’s done now, and working admirably. I wish I could call it a win, but it feels a bit like giving up. Thanks for having my back, Tam Valley Depot.
Pembroke:87 
The frog juicers are one of the slickest pieces of electronics in the hobby. I used them – with Bullfrogs – on Port Rowan from the outset and never had a worry. Good call.
Those Frog Juicers are just magic. I can’t think of many things that have done the thing they said they’d do as well and completely as they do. If anything is worth the money, they are.
And when in doubt, always choose the pie.
-Chris