turning commercial turnouts into 'handlaid' turnouts - possible?

[DeadheadGreg]

I'm actually working on my first handlaid turnout right now.  I've got the BK Enterprise point/frog assembly spiked down to the ties, but I don't have any other spare code 70 rail to use.  I'm not ripping up any more of my ME flex, because that stuff is just too *** expensive. 

I've got 5 3-foot long pieces of code 83 rail that wont be used (it was labeled code 70 at the store) in case anyone wants to trade in exchange for some code 70 rail!  lol 

 

 

[R. T. POTEET]

Greg, if you're primarily interested in hand-laying a good quality turnout, the place to start is with raw rail and a file, not with a Shinohara turnout - unless somebody gave you the turnout at no cost to you.

When Spacemouse started his, "Under $5.00," thread, I did a quick cost analysis of how much it costs me to hand lay a turnout.  Even with a manual throw mechanism (including an electrical switch to provide contacts for a hot frog,) I came in under $5.00.  I admit that I don't use any fancy jigs.  When I learned to build turnouts they didn't exist.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in Septmeber, 1964 - on hand-laid specialwork)

Gotta "ditto" this response, Chuck.

People tend to shy away from handlaying switches because it tends to look incredibly complicated. Although I had limited experience handlaying switches in my HO-Scale days when I began using Railcraft's N-Scale Code 55 back in the mid-80s it was either build-it-yourself or suffer the repetition of endless #6 switches. My first efforts were absolutely disasterous but I kept at it and it didn't really take that much time to get things "down pat" as they say. I eventually designed a jig with pre-cut removable wedges to facilitate laying out and filing my frogs. Today the whole process has become somewhat repetitious and if the original poster wants his switches on wood ties then the cheap way to go is going to be to handlay his switches himself.

Actually, the most repetitious part of the whole thing was ties; I didn't buy a NWSL "Chopper" but I built a little jig that looks just a little like a table-saw sled on the top of which I strap a dremel moto-tool which holds a mini-ripsaw blade and which I push through stripwood to give me my switch ties. I don't know just how many switches our original poster is going to need but I can knock off a couple of hundred switch ties of varying length in about an hour.

Admittedly it might take me a little longer to build - and install - my switches than an off-the-card one. I haven't actually done a cost analysis but since I use a manually operated bell-crank system to throw my switches the total cost of each switch probably does not exceed two bucks. 

[rolleiman]

I'm sure anything is possible but why bother?? By the time you go to all that trouble of bridging the rails (to keep them in gauge) and removing the ties, you could just build another one.

[tomikawaTT]

Greg, if you're primarily interested in hand-laying a good quality turnout, the place to start is with raw rail and a file, not with a Shinohara turnout - unless somebody gave you the turnout at no cost to you.

When Spacemouse started his, "Under $5.00," thread, I did a quick cost analysis of how much it costs me to hand lay a turnout.  Even with a manual throw mechanism (including an electrical switch to provide contacts for a hot frog,) I came in under $5.00.  I admit that I don't use any fancy jigs.  When I learned to build turnouts they didn't exist.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in Septmeber, 1964 - on hand-laid specialwork)

[DeadheadGreg]

I have some BK Enterprises point/frog assemblies already.  I would go this way, except they're like 30 freakin' bucks!!!!  Luckily, I found mine at a show.  I got....  something like 6 #5 assemblies and 4 #4 assemblies as well as a code 55 to 70 transition rail for $20!!!!  

The whole reason I was thinking of taking an RTR turnout apart to re-lay by hand would be to be able to guarantee its performance by actually creating it in proper guage, according to the best tolerances. 

[R. T. POTEET]

There is a company called BK Enterprises that makes switch kits in both HO- and N-Scale; I suppose that doing what you are inquiring about would, in essence, be creating a switch kit. Have at it if its what you would like to do.

I have never torn a switch apart - not intentionally anyway but that is another story - but I have cut the ties from under a length of Railcraft/Micro Engineering Code 55 flextrack. It's a rather expensive way of getting rail for building switches but I do salvage quite a few feet of ties out of the exercise. My local - and I understand this - will sell Micro Engineering Code 55 flex by the piece but will only order Code 55 rail if I agree to purchase the whole kit-and-kaboodle. I have (probably) expended as much energy as I am ever going to in handlaying track.

[dehusman]

Solder thin strips of shim brass across the tops of the rails to hold the rails in place and in gauge.  Then strip off the ties and relay the switch.  The shim brass will keep the track in gauge for the most part and keep things aligned.

The real problem areas will be the guardrails and especially the frog.  Beware insulating joints or spacers in the frog that may have to be filled or recut when the switch is reassembled.

The reason you would want to do that to a commercial switch is that the ties have busted off part of the switch or it has been partially mangled.  I have seen several Shinohara switches where the ties between the frog and the head blocks have busted off or come loose.

Dave H.

[gandydancer19]

You could, but why ruin a good turnout?  You can paint and weather the ties just as well.  That's what I do. 

I have also drilled small holes in the plastic ties to use spikes to hold track and turnouts to Homasote.  Now that I am using WS foam roadbed, I am just using adhesive caulk to hold my track down.

[DeadheadGreg]

So the other day I was staring at one of my Shinohara turnouts, wondering about the possibility of somehow putting spikes into the plastic ties to make the frogs look better, when I thought "why not just take all the ties off?" 

Has anyone ever tried to do this?  I'm wondering if this is a viable option, to put them onto wood ties.  Of course, with shinohara turnotus, I think you would have to keep the two ties that the points are hinged to, and then the throwbar.

do you think that this is at-all possible?