How hard is it to build turnouts?

[IRB Souther Engineer]

How hard is it to build turnouts? I am a beginner and don't have a rail bender...

[cabbage]

I don't have a rail bender either(!)

The shape of the rails on the points are maintained by the chairs affixed to the sleepers. The rail can be bent using the curve of your stomach -or a cushion. The hard part is building the frog and wing rails -these have to be cut and silver soldered quite accurately. The ratio of the frog is VERY NEARLY the cotangent of the angle of the point. Normal methods of construction involve gluing the pre-drawn paper shape to a baseboard, then nailing the sleepers to it, nailing the chairs to the sleepers and then feeding the rails through the chairs. Fitting the check rails and wing rails is done last.

It is not that hard -just very boring!

regards

ralph 

 

[Jerry Barnes]

 June, 2009 issue of Garden Railways has an article on that. Supposed to be a follow up article, but I have not seen that yet.

[tblack007]

 I too am a beginner at building turnouts and laying track but I found some great articles in the "How To & Video" section on this site. These articles were a great start for me. There is even a digital download on how to build your own Rail Bender. These aren't free but the small price was worth the time I saved starting in the right direction.

How To & Video section: Digital downloads > Downloadable Articles > Track, Accessories and Details.

Good luck and have patience. I have just about finished my first turnout and so far, it works smoothly!

Tim

[Rene Schweitzer]

Tim and all-- We have the build your own railbender article available as a PDF for only $1.95. The more recent series on making your own turnouts is also available for $4.95 (less than the price of a back issue). Here is the link to where they both are: http://www.kalmbachstore.com/modeltrains-railroading-garden-railroading-digital-downloads-downloadable-articles-track-accessories.html

[Jerry Barnes]

Rene,

  If you took Paypal I'd buy it.
 

[Rene Schweitzer]

Tim, I have suggested that they add Paypal before. . .and I understand where you're coming from.

[Rex in Pinetop]

I drove my first spike this week building a #5 turnout from the GR plans.  I bought stock rails from St Aubins and spikes from C&OCR.  The switch actuator is from E-ZAir Motion Control.  The jig plate was a piece of iron strap from Home Depot.  Here are the pics

Rex

[HappyrocK RailwaY]

Silly me I thought subscribing to Garden Railways mag would get me access to the online articals for free. Am I wrong?