Do any of you build your own manual turnout controls ?

[JohnWPowell]

I"m looking for a manual turnout control that would reach about 4 feet away.
thanks John

[rolleiman]

A guy I use to know used the regular caboose industry ground throws.. Instead of mounting them on the turnout however, he mounted them on the layout edge.. He then ran, through a brass tube (1/16 inside diameter or something like that) a piano wire going to the turnout.. The tube was passed under the roadbed so if your tracks are not on roadbed, this may not work for you. Also, Hobby shop piano wire only comes in 3' lengths so I don't quite know how you'd pull it off at 4 feet but maybe you can expand on the idea.

Jeff

[Anonymous]

There is any easy way to do this with an extension spring holding the points one way and a cable with a latching handle pulling them the other way. This is all mounted under the layout with the handle on the fascia or control panel. This was all the rage back in the early 80s, now everyone seems to have forgotten about it.

[simon1966]

I have not used these, but looked at them at a train show and they look like a decent solution. They can be mounted up to 6 ft away.
http://www.humpyard.com/

[pcarrell]

This sounds like a job for a good old choke cable / lawnmower throttle cable! You can get them real cheap right now too.

[htgguy]

John, not sure if you saw my thread from yesterday but here it is:

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53895

I think this would work for a turnout four feet away. You would need to make sure that the push rod portion of the assembly was stiff enough or well enough supported so the flex in the rod did not make the control unreliable.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Let us know how it works.

Jim

[JohnWPowell]

thanks everyone those are all good ideas . John

[Anonymous]

Check out Joe Fugate's method - using doorbolts and fishing line. This has to be one of the most elegant solutions I've seen (Joe even has a video of it here...)

http://model-trains-video.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57&highlight=doorbolt

What I like about it is that it's extremely robust as far as the user is concerned. You can't accidentally apply too much force to it - the doorbolt determines how far you can throw the thing - you can't really break the thing.

And its very adjustable - you adjust it by adjusting the way the wire hooks up to the spring wire. Very cool.

I will likely use this method along with a microswitch to power the frog. Joe doesn't power his frogs, and maybe that would be fine for me too - not sure yet.

No doubt you could reach 4 feet with this - just use longer fishing line. And if you're clever, you could even make the fishing line turn corners, etc.

[waltersrails]

pc funny lol

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by waltersrails

pc funny lol

Hey, it works! And it's bulletproof, easy, and cheap. [:D]

[Anonymous]

Here's a link to using wire and slide switches. http://www.2guyzandsumtrains.com/Content/pa=showpage/pid=13.html