I vaguely recall reading recently of a modeller who claims to 'tweak' turnouts to match his track geometry. I recall he said that he flips the turnout over and cuts the plastic tie web - as in flextrack - to allow him to introduce a curve where there was no curve before, or increase the curvature of curved turnouts.
Does any one remember this reference ? Or, has anyone successfully modified a turnout like this ?
I need to decrease the radius (from standard radius as supplied to a smaller radius to fit into a track plan)of some Peco Streamline code 75 curved turnouts and would welcome any advice.
lyctus I vaguely recall reading recently of a modeller who claims to 'tweak' turnouts to match his track geometry. I recall he said that he flips the turnout over and cuts the plastic tie web - as in flextrack - to allow him to introduce a curve where there was no curve before, or increase the curvature of curved turnouts. Does any one remember this reference ? Or, has anyone successfully modified a turnout like this ? I need to decrease the radius (from standard radius as supplied to a smaller radius to fit into a track plan)of some Peco Streamline code 75 curved turnouts and would welcome any advice.
The process described can work, with a few caveats:
All that said, curving straight turnouts to a fairly big (greater than 30") outer radius has been successfully done fairly often. In your particular case, I would figure out what the curve radius for a regular piece of track on the inside path is going to be before I planned on sharpening a commercial curved turnout. If that regular track piece radius is acceptable, then your plan might succeed.
Other alternatives that might better produce the desired result (but not in a track planning package) are cutting back the chosen turnout to the bare minimum length, especially on the inside path, and hand-laying a custom-built turnout for that one place. Cutting back the turnout will allow you to connect sharper radius track to the cut-back turnout without disturbing the mechanics of the turnout itself. Allow maybe 1/2" beyond the points and frog to fit rail joiners.
If choosing the hand-lay option, the easiest way to develop a template is to curve flex track for each path sequentially, and trace both paths onto the same paper template. This will give you the frog point and angle, and the appropriate point length without computation or measurement.
For track planning purposes, I would leave out the turnout and just connect the inside path with flex track, knowing that the outside path is going to be OK. If the radius of that flex track piece comes up too small in the plan, then an alternative track arrangement is going to have to be found.
yours in tracking
Fred W
Well said, Brother Wright!
The Master (John Armstrong) drew several track plans using turnouts curved by web-cutting, but always started with a high-number straight turnout - and included an alternate location where the uncut turnout would fit (albiet with shortened siding length or the points ending up in a tunnel.)
Your description of shaping a hand-laid turnout by bending flex along the desired routes is exactly the way I lay all of my specialwork. By the time a commercial turnout gets 'tweaked' it takes just about as much time and fuss to get it right as it does to build up the equivalent from raw rail on loose ties. Plus, if the modeler screws up and has to redo, the commercial turnout may be a total loss ($$$!!!) The worst that can happen to a hand-lay is the necessity to shape a piece of new rail a few inches long.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Your description and the terminology are undoubtedy mine. I inverted Walthers/Shinohara #7.5 curved turnouts and modified both curves beyond the frog. Actually, what I did was not "increase" the curve", but I extended the curve...that is, I increased the radius because I had found, to my dismay, that the inner route was about 3" shorter in radius than advertized. I wanted to find bedrock on the inner curve at an absolute 24" radius, but measured it at closer to 21". So, I cut the "inside" rail's webs to allow them to spread as I straigthend the curve they formed, and actually cut out little blocks of the webbing on the outer rail so that when I spread out the curve the outer rail's webbing had room to crowd.
I have also successfully altered the straight route past the points on regular turnouts, but probably didn't do the best job. You can bend and curve both those rails past the points, but it has to be slight. Think in terms of a 60" radius or more. That little bit, maybe two whole degrees by the time the wheels get to the point rails, actually allowed me to close the curved throat into one end of my yard, and allowed my reverse loop for turning trains. If you do that, go easy. The key is really good geometry on the approach, too, so that you don't miss it all by having to bend those ends so much that the engines or longer cars just won't be happy. Make it easier on yourself by getting the approach to do the bulk of accomodation if your curvatures are going to be okay.
-Crandell
Honestly, the quickest way would probably be to just get either a Central valley turnout strip, which is curvable, or lay out wooden ties, and then just remove the ties from a stock Shinohara, or whatever, turnout, and rebuild it onto the curved route. The only thing you have to do is spike, and if you don't want to attempt that, all you need to do is attempt the infinitely complex and nearly insurmountable task of gluing the rail to the ties or tie-strip.... haha
DeadheadGreg Honestly, the quickest way would probably be to just get either a Central valley turnout strip, which is curvable, or lay out wooden ties, and then just remove the ties from a stock Shinohara, or whatever, turnout, and rebuild it onto the curved route. The only thing you have to do is spike, and if you don't want to attempt that, all you need to do is attempt the infinitely complex and nearly insurmountable task of gluing the rail to the ties or tie-strip.... haha
Cutting out the three or four sections of tie strip with an Exacto blade on a stock Shinohara turnout should take about as much time as I took to write this--and a lot cheaper.
John Timm
A little different perhaps but I have on a couple of occasions attempted to scratchbuild short radius switches--#4, #5, and #6--using curved frogs for inclusion in industrial trackage; my last confinement at a sanatorium convinced me that I was asking for nothing but trouble trying to do so!
Based upon the other postings for this topic what you propose to do appears to be possible . . . . . . . . . . however you would do well to adhere to some of the caveats specified in some of these postings. The geometry of switches whether prototype or model are tried and very well tested!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I have previously used Tillig turnouts, they are flexible enough to tweak to fit in difficult places. Give them a try, they are worth it!
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Thanks fellas for your valued input. I will digest the wisdom offered and proceed with caution.If I had the sort of acreage my railroad empire deserves,of course, I would not have to recourse to hazardous practices.............