I have been interested now for about 3+ months in handlaying my own turnouts. I have never done this before but I have to tell you that I am discouraged by what I see. I got on Fast Tracks website and for a minimum of $190 you can get one of their "kits". Now, granted you can probably build a number of turnouts for that money but I only need a few in odd and tight places on my small switching layout (a half-dozen at most). Further, I don't know what tools I will actually need; that, I believe will be more cost on top of just the supplies. Can anyone with the experience enlighten me on this?
There are a ton of threads on this already, including this recent one, so you may wish to do quick search and see what you find.
Basically, and generally speaking, those folks that have the Fast Tracks jigs love them and feel they are worth the cost for the experience, enjoyment, and quality of the final product. Those that don't, seem to have issues justifying the cost of the product.
For full disclosure, I fall in the former category.
However you don't need anything more than a file, gauge, rail, spikes, ties and solder, to make your own turnout. Odds are your first results may not be the best, but like anything you will get better as you go.
The hardest part is the frog, the Fast Tracks point form/frog tool is a great investment if you know what number turnout you're going to be using.
You can even download for free the templates from Fast Tracks, and use those as a rough outline for tie placement and your rail measurements (make sure you check your gauge frequently, however).
Good luck!
I'm trying to model 1956, not live in it.
Tom,
I'm a Fast Tracks turnout user and really enjoy them. Although I was looking into purchasing the jigs, fixtures, supplies and tools to make my own, I found - like you - that it wouldn't be as cost effective for me to buy them because I only needed a few in each size.
If you are only needing onesy-twosies of a particular size, you can actually purchase them either finished or semi-finished off eBay for not much more than the cost of a Peco turnout. That's what I did and the quality has been excellent.
I'm still looking forward to making my own FT turnouts someday. However, in my present circumstance, buying them already made made the most financial sense for me.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Tom's answer is essentially what mine would be, but only with the hindsight afforded to the learning that Scarpia mentions earlier. I, too, am a FT user, and I bought two jigs. They cost a bundle, no two ways about it. What I am left with, though, is a fundamental understanding and appreciation of what it takes to make my own turnouts as and when I need them...the way I need them. In fact, after making two #6 double-slips (with one eventually cannibalized to make one good one ) and six #8 turnouts, I confidently built two others of a completely different type in place where they would serve my track plan. One was a curved #6 wye-type (as opposed to a straight route through the frogs and beyond), and the other was a long #10 curved out on the main. I won't blow smoke and tell you they are superb turnouts....I can do better...but they have served me well for three years now.
Either buy the few you need from those who sell them commercially, or learn how to build your own the same way...just use a template and gauges. If you know how to solder, have access to PCB tie materials, and a few good metal files, I'd say build your own. You'll throw away the first...only maybe...and the rest will be just super.
-Crandell
Scarpia There are a ton of threads on this already, including this recent one, so you may wish to do quick search and see what you find. Basically, and generally speaking, those folks that have the Fast Tracks jigs love them and feel they are worth the cost for the experience, enjoyment, and quality of the final product. Those that don't, seem to have issues justifying the cost of the product. For full disclosure, I fall in the former category. However you don't need anything more than a file, gauge, rail, spikes, ties and solder, to make your own turnout. Odds are your first results may not be the best, but like anything you will get better as you go. The hardest part is the frog, the Fast Tracks point form/frog tool is a great investment if you know what number turnout you're going to be using. You can even download for free the templates from Fast Tracks, and use those as a rough outline for tie placement and your rail measurements (make sure you check your gauge frequently, however).
I'm in either a subset of the second category, or a member of a third category - those who tried and learned to hand lay before there was a Fast Tracks.
My guide was Jack Work's article on hand laying turnouts in the April 1963 Model Railroader (you can order copies of the article from Kalmbach or the NMRA Library), slightly modified for materials I had and personal prejudice. Nobody to show me or help besides the article - and this was a young man who was all thumbs, had never done any metal working previously, and had minimal soldering experience and skills. It just ain't rocket science, nor does it require a master craftsman or $200 worth of jigs and tools.
My very first turnout was highly successful except for some stray blobs of solder that didn't affect racking through the turnout.
Tools and supplies I use(d):
Fast Tracks does provide jigs that make forming the parts of a given size turnout faster than my file and trial fit method. But the hand fitting works for any size turnout, and can be used on site or at the work bench. Fast Tracks also provides excellent instructional videos, photos, instructions, and other aids. These jigs and instructions do a great job of helping, especially for those of us who were/are intimidated by the idea of hand laying our own turnouts (I know I sure was). But you don't have to have them to hand lay a turnout - I'm living proof that anybody can do it provided you have the patience to stick with it until everything is spot on.
After my 2nd turnout, I was down to two 2 hour evenings per turnout. This was from bare roadbed to completed turnout, ballasted, wired, with weathered rail.
hope this helps
Fred W
I have never used a jig to lay a turnout - or a puzzle palace of double slip switches and three way switches on curves...
If you DON'T use jigs, you have to take care not to put kinks in curved rails and assure that track gauge is correct, but you can set the track geometry to suit yourself and forget about compromising your track plan to use (fillintheblank)'s commercial products.
I've been handlaying specialwork since long before the FasTracks jigs were first available, so all of my tools have long since paid for themselves. If, OTOH, I was going to buy this afternoon what I need to start laying track tonight, from a standing start my total investment would be less than $30 - and half of that would go for an NMRA gauge and two three-point track gauges. Half of the rest would be eaten up by a big, flat, 'illegitemate' cut file and a pair of long nose pliers. The first use of that file would be to cut grooves in the tips of the pliers to hold spikeheads more securely. The remaining $7 would cover enough raw material for two #8 turnouts. I didn't include a soldering tool, drill and bits and other things needed to lay any track - even a Christmas tree loop on a plywood donut.
There are about as many ways of hand-fabricating a turnout as there are people who have done it. All agree on two things:
Of course, there's no law that says a too-short closure rail can't be recycled into guard rails.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I did not spend the 200 dollars into handlaying turnouts.
I sunk the money instead into a batch of ready made turnouts and called it good enough. I did have to redesign the industry to make the trackwork switchable.
I like scratch building turnouts. Here's my How To. All I need is the NMRA gauge and soldering tools.
My latest turnout was a dual gauge separation turnout.BTW, you can use the Central Valley turnout tie strip as template. They're curvable!
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
Hi Tom,
Fast Tracks products are well-made and well-thought-out, and I'm not surprised that so many people swear by them. However, I started building my own turnouts when I was about 15 or 16 years old, and you can bet that was long before Fast Tracks was a gleam in anyone's eye.
The method I use now is basically the same as that described by Tony Koester in the December 1989 Model Railroader, and reprinted in the Kalmbach Book Trackwork and Lineside Detail for your Model Railroad (still available on this Web site). You'll need a few basic tools, most of which you probably have if you've been in the hobby for any time, and some kind of prototype drawing or model turnout to use as a guide.
My approach is to use a jig for a standard tie layout that I copied from the Santa Fe. When I glue ties onto the layout with the spacing set by this jig, I can consistently build turnouts to standard dimensions just by counting ties.
I've never had any of the problems others have warned about here, and I find turnout building to be one of the most relaxing and rewarding parts of the hobby. Anyone reading this is welcome to contact me offline at asperandeo@mrmag.com and request a Word file of a handout I distribute when I give a talk on handlaying turnouts. (Please don't post requests for the handout on this forum.) I'm about to leave the office for the evening, so don't expect any response from me until tomorrow
So long,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
Hi Tom
I am in the same boat as you. I bought some CVT turnout kits from MB Klien and some code 70 ME flex and tried my own. After looking for the adhesive I picked up a tube of Walthers Goo and some fine tips. I built the first one in a little over 2 hours. The second one in less than an hour. I did not use the plastic frog from the kit but instead used the closure rails. The kit comes with a template and is perfect for getting the rail bent right. Both turnouts work flaulesly. I dont even get a click from a wheel when they go over the frog.
Tools needed.
1 Rail nippers.
2 8 inch mill file.
3 soldering iron and fine solder for the frog.
4 Jewlers saw with fine blades. For cutting gaps in the frog rails.
5 NMRA gauge and a couple of ME track guages.
6 a small bench vice.
7 CNC brigeport milling drilling machine.( Just kidding.)
http://www.cvmw.com/
CVT web site. For $9 try it.
Pete
P.S. They are super detailed to boot. Fast tracks are not.
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Sorry forgot to add that gluing the rails you can build at the bench and install later.
Scarpia There are a ton of threads on this already, including this recent one, so you may wish to do quick search and see what you find. Basically, and generally speaking, those folks that have the Fast Tracks jigs love them and feel they are worth the cost for the experience, enjoyment, and quality of the final product. Those that don't, seem to have issues justifying the cost of the product. For full disclosure, I fall in the former category. However you don't need anything more than a file, gauge, rail, spikes, ties and solder, to make your own turnout. Odds are your first results may not be the best, but like anything you will get better as you go. The hardest part is the frog, the Fast Tracks point form/frog tool is a great investment if you know what number turnout you're going to be using. You can even download for free the templates from Fast Tracks, and use those as a rough outline for tie placement and your rail measurements (make sure you check your gauge frequently, however). Good luck!
The first is, you can't look at up front cost. You have to think of the future too. You may only need a few turnouts now, but what happens if you add on to your layout? Or build a different one? You will use it again. Just try to be careful. If it is as easy and fun as shown in Tim's (creater of Fast Tracks) youtube videos and as the advice/posts given to me, I will end up making more than I need, because I like making them.
Here comes some open thoughts. All those extra you make, you could sell them. That recoupe some of your cost. Have some friends that are into hand laying? Invite them over, have them pay for materials, teach them how to build some turnouts, and then tell them if they really like it, they could pay a small renters fee and use your jig sets. There you go, more of your up-front money recouped.
There is also one more way of looking at it, and that was mentioned. Look past the cost and look at the expierences and skills you can gain here. And the pride. It will probably be inevitable that someone will ask you "did you make all that?" I don't care how diss-interested they could be in model trains, but once they here that you made all the track and/or turnouts by hand, they be looking at nothing but your layout and listening to nothing else but you.
There's , no you can buy yourself a soda. Or put it towards the FastTrack fund . Now as I think I mentioned before my case is a little different. I like switching, but I also like to let my trains run a bit. I like my idea's for a freelanced RR based on prototype tracks, towns, and businesses, but I also like MR's MILW Beer Line. So there is a chance I will be building a version of both, on a doulb deck style layout with an upper deck being my freelance version going around the room providing some switching and long runs, and a smaller, L-shaped version of the Beer Line that would be nothing but switching. So with my plans all the jigs and tools that are needed or recommended would get some decent use. I hope to come upon some financial stability soon so I can build all the bench work this fall and work on building the tracks this winter.