Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Central Valley makes a semi hand laid turnout and track system that might be a bit easier for a novice. They look great and are simple to build. You don't need to buy any special tools either.
CVMW.com
Like howdy-do friendly or like what are you doing later friendly?
Yeah. It's your choice as to whether you power the frog.
mike33469 wrote:I forgot to ask, can they be made DCC friendly?
The Fast Tracks method is to sever the frog from the rest of the rails, thus isolating it from the rest of the turnout. This act makes them the same as insulfrog turnouts that Peco makes, for example, in their Streamline Code 83 series. You can still power the frog with a toggle DPDT or with the contacts on a switch motor designed for that capability, such as the Tortoise Switch Machine. In my case, I just built the Fast Tracks turnouts as Tim Warris shows in his video, including cutting the frog rails and closure rails with a jeweler's saw. The tiny resulting slits hardly show at all, and they make the turnouts "DCC friendly".
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
loathar wrote:Central Valley makes a semi hand laid turnout and track system that might be a bit easier for a novice. They look great and are simple to build. You don't need to buy any special tools either.CVMW.com
I heartily endorse using the Central Valley turnout ties as a "poor man's" jig-built turnout ala Fast Tracks. Not only is this approach a lot cheaper than the full-blown Fast Tracks jig method, it gives you turnouts that look better than the Fast Tracks ones -- with full tie plate and spikehead detail. And of course, like the Fast Tracks method, the CVT turnouts are ultra reliable and as DCC friendly as it gets.
Here's a photo of one of these finished turnouts, and you can find all the details, step-by-step (with photos), for building these turnouts on my web site:
(Click image to enlarge)
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
mike33469 wrote:Has anyone built any Fast Track, Twist Ties Turnout Kit, turnouts? If so, do you think a novice could build them. I have hand laid track before (no turnouts) on a 2'x6' diorama. I have also built several layouts over the past 25 years, flex track and ready to run turnouts. I can solder, I'm not the greatest but I'm not bad. I'm planning on starting a engine service yard on my current lauout and would like to use hand laid track and turnouts. Pros, Cons? Thanks
Mike,
I am likely the only person on the internet who admits that building his own turnouts is hard and takes more patience and time than I am willing to invest. There are just too many other things I enjoy about model railroading than track.
Oh, I gave it a couple of months hard work and built 8, the first one took 3 hours, the rest about an hour. Then over the next month or so, I discovered that while they all seemed to pass the NMRA gauge , none of them would work perfectly in all four directions. I've removed all of them and replaced them with Atlas c83 mark 4 turnouts and am a happy camper.
I was at a club member's layout on Saturday admiring his hand built track and he said he was really not happy with it and would never do it again. "It was just not worth the time and effort, commercial track looks so good and works better," he said. This from a fellow who scratch builds all of his buildings. Needless to say, I was shocked to the core.
Joe Daddy
mike33469 wrote:Has anyone built any Fast Track, Twist Ties Turnout Kit, turnouts? If so, do you think a novice could build them. I have hand laid track before (no turnouts) on a 2'x6' diorama. I have also built several layouts over the past 25 years, flex track and ready to run turnouts. I can solder, I'm not the greatest but I'm not bad. I'm planning on starting a engine service yard on my current layout and would like to use hand laid track and turnouts. Pros, Cons? Thanks
I had done very little soldering in my life before I got my Fast Track jig. I use only regular ties and not the already done ones.
I can tell you this. It was very very easy! The first one took over an hour. But now I can make two at a time and it takes less then an hour to make them by streamlining the process. It is fast, cheap and they turn out much better then any of the other brands I've tried such as Peco, Atlas and Roco. I watched the video and read the instructions. Now I can roll a single plastic truck with no weight what so ever through the turnout without noticing even the slightest bump. I say that the jig is the best investment so far in this hobby. Well, that and Joe Fugates videos.
Magnus