It's been about a year since I've posted and now since it's cooled down here in Phoenix, I've got the "mr bug" again. My ho scale layout is going on five years in the making and here's my problem. I've got code 83 track along with 18 Atlas switches. I've been slowly buying Tortoise switch machines but I'm nowhere near what I need to adequetly run my layout efficiently. I have no problem manually switching by sliding the switch back/forth and have tried using a pin through the hole into my foam in order to keep the switch from moving and derailing my cars.....this isn't working too well.
Is there something that I can use to keep my switches in places as to not derail my engines.....just so I can run my layout until I get my Tortoise switch machines in? This is getting frustrating....everytime I go over a switch I cringe and hope not to derail, although 9 out of 10 times I'm over the edge.
BTW, I'm the one from past that has designed and built the Granite Gorge and Northern RR and added a town along with street running. Been a while and it's always nice to come back.
I gather that the upper level of your layout is foam. That would make it difficult to anchor anything solidly enough to maintain tension on the points - and lack of positive point tension is the source of your present problems.
One possible technique relies on the springiness of a paper clip. By carefully un-bending one, you can make a miniature horizontal spring. The free leg goes through the hole in the throwbar usually used by an Atlas top-of-the-table machine. The other leg presses against the outside of the stock rail. There should be about 1/16" inch deflection from the rest position to assure that the points won't move.
Throwing the switch calls for moving the, 'switch key' to the other side. I am assuming that your switches still have full-length throwbars. If not, all bets are off.
In my own modeling, I use an Anderson link, with the point-throwing machinery under the roadbed. I still rely on the springiness of a paper clip, just in a different way.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I've been sliding a toothpick in between my throw bars and the adjacent tie to hold my Atlas tuurnouts. Just don't use too much pressure and damage anything.
Did the turnouts come with the Atlas manual "switch machines?" These can be re-mounted, or even glued to the layout base. They will hold the turnout points in place.
If that's not available, I'd take a thin strip of cardboard and slide it under the throwbar. This will add friction to the mechanism, and might be enough to hold it in place.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Get some .025 piano wire. Drill a hole in a tie about 3/4" from the throwbar. Cut a 3" piece of wire and put a 90 deg bend in it a klittle more than an inch from one end. Put the long end into the hole in the tie. just past the hole in the thowbar, make another bend down to form an upside down squared off J. Then put a "kink", a slight bend, in the horizontal leg. Put the long leg into the hole in the tie and the other end into the hole in the throwbar. The kink should be enough that there is some tension on the throwbar.
All you have to do is push the points over and the spring tension will hold it.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Thanks for all your help, sounds like some great ideas to try, and yes the layout is 3" foam.