It seems to me that it is more efficient to build turnouts on the bench--unless they are custom. A curved turnout almost certainly has to be done on the layout.
Now I haven't actually done a curved turnout, but it makes sense to do it on the layout.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Since there is no reason to hand lay a turnout without knowing what the track geometry is, there is no reason I can think of to have to build a turnout in place on the layout unless that's what you want to do. I have found it hundred times easier to build on the bench, then to fine tuning on the layout. Curved or straight (spiral or tangent to use RR terms) makes no difference, both are better built on a work bench.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Chip, I build the standard #'d turnouts on the bench, and for reasons you would find obvious. Where I wanted custom turnouts, curved #3 wye and a long #10 curved, I first traced their paths with overlays of flex, and then drew their outlines using flex with ties on the bench. Once I knew how I would have to place the ties, where the frog had to be, and where the throwbar had to be, the rest was just placing rail lengths cut to size where they needed to go on my template and soldering them to PC ties. Your jigs will allow you to make your frogs, points rails, and your guards/wings. That was how the wye went for me. The long curved #10 was mostly built in place, but only after I had the two outer rails shaped and soldered to several ties because I wanted it to fit perfectly on my higher speed main. It gets a bit hard on the back...I suppose...but by the time one is doing such custom work, one is generally a lot more proficient and confident that it will be a matter of standard procedures.
I am pleased to say that both turnouts work well, although the wye isn't especially pretty. Constant checks with the gauge makes all the difference. But, for me, the initial shaping and forming took place on the bench where things were flat and clean, nothing in the way of elbows. Only when I could pick up the very basic skeleton did I transfer it to its place of intent and then finish the construction. Once in its location, it becomes another Fast Tracks turnout build.
-Crandell
tangerine-jack Since there is no reason to hand lay a turnout without knowing what the track geometry is, there is no reason I can think of to have to build a turnout in place on the layout unless that's what you want to do. I have found it hundred times easier to build on the bench, then to fine tuning on the layout. Curved or straight (spiral or tangent to use RR terms) makes no difference, both are better built on a work bench.
As usual, I'm going to take the opposite tack. I build all of my specialwork in place, spiked to wood ties with spikes that penetrate into the substrates below the ties. Since the substrates in question are cardstock (track template) and thin (extremely flexible) extruded foam, they need to have the solid support of a plywood subgrade. The only place they will have that, is where they will be used on the layout itself.
Another factor is my preference to use full, uncut lengths of rail, like the one that starts off as one side of the point of a frog and plays stock rail to three points before finally ending at the clearance point of the final turnout in the series. I do not build individual turnouts. I build whatever combination of specialwork elements result in smooth, kink-free connections between entrance (s) and exit(s) of the entire interlocking.
I have also been known to build a turnout by sliding the ties off half of a length of flex track (yes, Matilda, even Atlas 'fixed to one rail' ties can be persuaded to slide) and spreading the rails to conform to the desired curvatures (one of which might be tangent,) then erecting points and frog between them. Since I don't notch stock rails, but rather shape my points to ride up on them, I can open up pre-laid flex and insert a turnout literally anywhere.
Finally, I do not tie myself to numbered frogs. If my built-in-place frogs turn out to fit the literature geometry, fine. If they don't... My only concern is that the full train of designated derailment checkers can be backed through the finished product, at track speed, without a bobble. Tweaking takes place during construction, not afterward.
There is one potential exception to the above - that really isn't an exception. My major interlockings are built on removable 'dominoes' of solidly-supported roadbed. I could, in theory, take them to the bench to lay track on them. In practice, I have not done so - but I have taken them to the bench to install under-the-roadbed electricals after the track was laid.
My methods work for me. I will not assume that they will work for everybody.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I've worked with segments. It's more convenient.
But with big ones like this it's better to work at some type of bench.
I made the drawing, glued the sheets together, glued the ties,...
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
SpaceMouse It seems to me that it is more efficient to build turnouts on the bench--unless they are custom. A curved turnout almost certainly has to be done on the layout.
If you build turnouts on the bench you have to have some way of keeping them "together" until you get them into the layout. I have used two methods. One is to use PC board ties. The other is to use narrow strips of tin tack soldered to the tops of the rails. After you relay the switch, touch an iron to the top of the strip and it comes right off.
Building turnouts on the bench is really handy if you belong to a club where you only meet once a week or one day a month. You can make the switches at home and then install them on the club meeting night. I did that at both the Schuylkill Valley MRRC and Houston Society of Model Engrs.
I like to build components on the bench (frogs, points, guardrails) and then assemble the switch in place. If you build them on the bench you still have to fit them in place and each switch is an separate piece. If you build them in place the track is more of a unit and can be adjusted to fit the location. I have had some leads with 4 switches cut into the same 3 ft long stock rail. the vast majority of the 37 switches in the Wilmington terminal I am currently building have stock rails that are 2 or 3 feet long and may span 2 or 3 switches.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Put me in Chuck's contrarian camp.
I've never had a bench that was much better to work on than the layout, so there's one reason.
If one builds at the bench, it's little different from a prefab turnout. It's still basically a sectional piece of track to be inserted into the layout. It's just you made it yourself instead of buying it at the store. The "flow" tends to get lost without some effort to hide the otherwise obvious joint. Like Chuck, I use full length pieces of rail. In the past, I've notched stock rails, but this time around I'm going to experiment with better formed points.
Building on the layout will test accessibility of the track. Which may or may not be a good thing depending on whether the need for accessibility compromises your track plan. I've never had to build a turnout where I had to reach more than a foot into the layout - if I did I might change my mind on the matter.
The last of my reasons for building on site is the kick I get of installing roadbed, then basic scenic terrain, then ties and ballast, and finally laying rail. Once I get to the basic terrain and roadbed stage, I am now part of the process of extending the railroad in a manner similar to the real world.
Just like so much of model railroading, there are good reasons for both methods. Which method is right for you depends on the relative weight of the reasons in your minature universe.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
fwrightIf one builds at the bench, it's little different from a prefab turnout. It's still basically a sectional piece of track to be inserted into the layout. It's just you made it yourself instead of buying it at the store. The "flow" tends to get lost without some effort to hide the otherwise obvious joint. Like Chuck, I use full length pieces of rail. In the past, I've notched stock rails, but this time around I'm going to experiment with better formed points.
Yep, which is why I build mine on the layout, too.
i build all of my turnouts at my workbench, on pieces of basswood which are the height of either N or HO cork roadbed, depending on where they'll go. This way I can take completed turnouts and install them as needed. I also typically leave the rails extending past the ties so that i can keep rail joints away from the turnouts. That, or I build the turnout to include track before and after the turnout, like putting 10 ties before the throwbar, and add like 2 or 3 inches of track past the frog.
A clear consensus. Everyone does it their own way.
(I should have known.)
Like so much else in the hobby, there are many valid ways to the same end. The responders have given you their reasons for their choice. Now you have to sort out which reasons apply to you.
If using Fast Tracks, building at the bench is assumed in the tutorials, tools, and materials. Building on site will require at least some adaptation/modification of the Fast Tracks methodology. Likewise, use of other jigs or standard components would tend to favor building at the bench.
Roadbed, rail fastening method, and ballasting sequence all must be involved in the decision. If using cork or similar non-spike holding roadbed, building at the bench would be the norm if using spikes to hold the rail to ties. Laying track on site requires a spike-holding roadbed to spike your rails. Glued or soldered rail gives more freedom of choice. Likewise, ballasting before laying track leads to laying track on site rather than at the bench.
Working conditions at your bench versus on your layout should also be factored in. Lighting, reachability, space to work, and comfort in the environment should be considered.
My best advice is to organize your givens and druthers regarding handlaid track, and let those guide you to whether the bench or the layout is better suited for you as the track construction site.
Fred,
Since I already have the jig for Code 70, I plan on making all the mainline turnouts on the bench with the exception of the curved turnout I mentioned and possibly a double slip.
I don't have the jig for the code 55 turnouts in the yards and sidings and I am debating. It would be easier and probably faster (no learning curve) to use the jig, but if I want a hand-laying merit badge, I have to do a bunch and throw in some fancy stuff.
And it's cheaper to just hand-lay.
Chip, it really boils down to this: if your roadbed is planar (as your workbench ought to be), all you need is an overlay-type drawing of your required custom geometry, tack that to a piece of MDF, and then commence bending, cutting, and gauging rails to conform to the curvature you derived from the ovelaying template. It is the way most of us do it. Then, when you are ready, slide it into place, nip the odd bit of rail to get it to fit with nice gaps, and then slide joiners...you're ready to hook up the throwbar mechanism, and you are good to go.
If, on the other hand, your situation at this place on your layout also has a unique terrain (contours) such as on a grade easement, then you would probably want to do much of the building on-site to ensure your turnout will conform nicely to the complete three dimensional geometry at this site. Fred's description, and I am sure Chuck's method, is to bend over the location and build it all by first laying ties appropriately, and then bending and trimming rails.
This reminds me of the "What do I do first?" questions that often arise with bridges. Do we build them more or less to fit, and then trim terrain, bridge, both, or do we build the bridge on site to conform with whatever's there. The answer seems to be...do what seems right. It's gonna work in the end 'cuz that's what you'll insist be the result.
Port Authority (PATH) in New York builds turnouts at the shop in Jersey City from a prefab kit. All ties, rails and other bits are numbered and clamped together in the parking lot. Then the completed turnout is loaded onto a service car and brought to the work site where it is installed. So in this case, building a turnout at the bench and then putting it on the layout is completly prototypical, doing it as it were, the way real railroads do.
But again, to each his own. I don't worry about where the rail joints fall, I have a file and a soldering gun. I am clumsy at best at building on the layout, and I would much rather sit down where it is comfortable, grab a cup of Joe and build the turnout on the bench.