Tom, I have about six Walthers/Shinohara #7.5 curved turnouts, and one #8. First, the 7.5's were much tighter in the inner radius than I was led to believe by the person on the phone, who was presumably only reading his literature to me. I had to modify them to widen both curves, and I am content. The #8 is much better that way, but its frog is one of those where everything rocks traversing it....not happy about that. In that respect the #7.5's do well.
I had already purchased the #8 standard jig kit and the #6 double slip when I learned I had to tear down my first layout and do this newest one. So, I was loath to also order a jig kit for curve turnouts, so I ordered commercial.
You can take it from me, Tom; if you purchase a turnout-making kit from Tim Warris, it will be a superior product. The frogs will be correct for a curved trajectory, not straight frogs placed into a curved turnout like the commercial ones do. Tim confirms in his video that he knew to do a proper frog for his curved jigs. So your turnouts, once you complete them, will be glassy smooth to rolling items. On the other hand, the commercially available RTR turnouts leave something to be desired in at least one respect in my experience....for the Walthers/Shinohara, at least. Still, I would guess that you would be happy with a Walthers #7.5 because I think that would fit your plan with very minor adjustments over all. Mine work in my spaghetti bowl type layout with the modifications I made, but those mods were to the curvature radii by springing them outward a bit....the frogs are fine for all of my six.
If you intend to make several curved turnouts, the FT jig set would be a good investment, mainly because they will be useful in future layouts...probably. But if you only need the one...
-Crandell
Tom
You don't have to build a turnout from a FT jig. Especially after you have built a couple with the jigs, you will understand what has to be done. As several other hand layers have pointed out in other threads, the easiest way to make your own custom template is with flex track.
Tape a piece of paper alongsided the desired location. Fold the paper out of the way. Bend some flex track and pin to the desired alignment for one leg. Put the paper on top and do a pencil rub tracing to get the rail locations. Fold the paper back out of the way. Realign the flex track for the other leg. Put the paper back on and rub trace the other route. This gives you a template with your frog angle and location, and point location.
From here you can either build in place, or at the bench using the template you have made. The beauty of this method is that the sweep of the curves determine the frog angle and point leads, not the other way around. Now this is not strictly prototypical for modern railroading with their prefab turnout components, but it will give smooth flowing and looking model track.
just my thoughts
Fred W
Fred,
Interesting idea. I may have to look into that further. Thanks!
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
You are welcome. I "stole" the idea from others, so I can't claim any credit. Steve Hatch explains some of his techniques on his web site, http://www.railwayeng.com/. Also, Chuck (of Japanese modeling fame) has suggested similar techniques for laying out turnouts in other threads on this forum.
In the past (before FT existed), I have handlaid turnouts on site. I simply drew track centerlines on the Homasote using battens and yardsticks, and eyeballed the curves from there. I didn't worry about getting the frog angle right - I filled all the gaps with solder, and cut the flangeways out with a hacksaw blade (happens to cut just a hair under NMRA standard).
I do like the flex track tracing idea much better, and will use it this fall or winter when I start track laying again (close on the new house next week). With a good template, I can file an accurate frog angle and use just enough solder to hold the frog together.
The FT jigs are somewhat faster than custom building, and are a great confidence builder for first attempts at handlaid turnouts. But you can build just as good a product on your own once you have a couple of turnouts under your belt and understand what is going on.
stealing good ideas shamelessly