Yes you get alot of support from the various forums and if you keep at it you will succeed. I am just now getting the ball rolling on various projects on the manufactures side of the hobby and the personal side and the encouragement I got was instrumental in pushing forward.
When I checked online a little while ago and saw I had a number of replies to my most recent question I wasn't surprised. Nor, to be honest, was I surprised at the knowledge and experience obvious in the words of the respondents. Not even surprised at the generosity of all your taking time to do so, and your willingness to share what you know.
These forums are a resource I'm relying on more often as time passes. These forums - which really means all you people - are an inspiration as well as a source of information.
Even while being fascinated, intrigued and challenged by what you've all chosen to share in response to my question, the main thought going through my mind as I read over your remarks is how much I look forward to gaining knowledge and experience in pursuing our hobby so I can pay it forward by sharing with others what all of you have so generously shared with me. To say thank you is insufficient. Now I feel I have a duty to fulfill, and am delighted at the thought of doing so.
Gene
Hi from Belgium,
I use Fastrack jig in Nscale since two years for the track Of my Maclau River RR.
Besides the fact of a quite expensive materials, I must admit that the quality of the turnouts produced are so far from the commercialy avaible turnouts.
In the past I use Peco N scale code 55 track and it runs very well but are a little bit out of scale with big trowbar, big ties big wing rails.
The code 55 Fastrack turnouts are very light and nearly to the scale.
Following are some suggestions about the construction or Fastrack turnouts after a nearly 80 turnouts build, in n°6 n°8 and n°8 curved..
First and before use good solder iron and solder. Clean often the tips of the iron solder and watch several times the CD-video offer by Fastrack. (including the tips library on the site)
Prepare a batch of pieces of track in serial to construct more than one turnouts; your skill and "hands" will find the best way to produce them if you prepare a good series in place of one turnout.
Mount all the turnouts in series, again because you find a better ability in a serial construction.
Check the opening of the rail in the frog by inserting a gauge of an around 0.8mm (for Nscale) between the two rails and the frog; this space must be equal on both sides.
I didn't use the N scale trowbar-Nscale ties because is to small to drill a hole in it, but I replace it with Fastrack HOn3 ties; when painted and weathered you can notice the differences. They are easier to use, stronger to put the hole for the switch machines.
I solder some more PC ties on the skeleton of the turnout, one outside the frog, so when you cut the frog according the Fastrack instruction, the two small remaining track are soldered on two ties; it's stronger. I solder one more just before the one Marked "S" on the jig, which reinforce the attachements of the wing rails.
To save money I didn't use the Fastrack laser stick wood ties, but use the old ME ties glued on an printed turnouts plan from the library of Fastrack. I glue the skeleton on the wood ties with GOO glue from Fastrack.
Anyway they are the best turnouts I have find and the electrical continuity of this turnout is amazing especialy in Nscale.
Here is a series of 27 tunouts build this summer in my garden for my future east yard.( 5 days work!)
Marc
Fast tracks turnout jigs look and probably work real good but for just one size turnout is very expensive. I tried a couple of CVT turnout kits $10 each minus rail. Careful assembly and walthers goo to glue the rails and they work flawlessly. Since that experiment I have run across P87 shops $10 turnouts with separate frog and non hinged point rails. I made mine with code 70 rail stripped from a piece of ME flex. I did not use the plastic frog from CVT instead I made one from rail and cut gaps with a jewelers saw. As for looks, that is the reason I am hand laying my home rail road. Code 70 heavy branch line/main and code 55 yards and sideings with some code 40 in some industry tracks. I want to model visible track to the super detail point. Joint bars, tie plates, rotten ties and ballast.
http://www.proto87.com/
http://www.cvmw.com/cvtswitch/index.htm
Pete
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!
I learned to build my own turnouts before there was a Fast Tracks. I was on my own, no particular skill with my hands, and taught by Jack Work's article on building turnouts in the April 1963 Model Railroader. I would still recommend that article for somebody wanting to learn to build from scratch rather than Fast Tracks - you can order a copy from Kalmbach or the NMRA library. Stephen Hatch also has a good article and tips on building turnouts on his web site - http://www.railwayeng.com/handlay6/hndly-h3.htm
Turnout building is not rocket science, and doesn't take great skills. It does require patience and the right attitude. You have to be willing to correct your mistakes until you get it right. The surprise to me was I just didn't make many mistakes, even on my 1st. Examples of "mistakes" are a slightly mis-placed spike pushing the rail out of perfect alignment, getting a solder gob in the wrong place, filing too much rail from a point, not getting a guardrail at the correct distance, etc.
If you do much reading on the subject, you will see all kinds of contradictions in the advice and methods. That's because there are at least as many ways to hand lay track as there are mr's hand laying track. For the sake of disclosure, here are my preferences and prejudices:
That I favor a particular result for each bullet means somebody else has/does it opposite or differently from me. I'm just illustrating the variety of means and methods. After you have done a couple of turnouts (or even before) you will modify somebody else's methods to suit yourself. My 1st change to Jack Work's methods was to use PC board for the throwbar with soldered points instead of soldered screws into a wood throwbar.
On the 1st night of building a turnout, I glued the redwood (redwood meant no stain needed) ties by eye to Homasote where I had drawn guide lines with a pencil. While the glue was wet, I added ballast. While the glue was drying, I painted the sides of 4 lengths of rail with a small paintbrush and some Testor's paint. I soldered on a piece of 26 gauge magnet wire on the bottom of each rail.
On the 2nd night, I sanded the ties. I drilled holes for the feeders and spiked the stock rails. With the stock rails in place, the NMRA gauge showed where the frog point had to go. I filed the 2 frog rails for a lap joint (one extends further than the other), drilled feeder holes, and spiked in place. I formed 2 wing rail/closure rail/point combinations, and feeders attached at mid-point. Point ends were filed to shape, and the result spiked in place. The frog was filled with solder, and then the flangeways cut out with a hand-held hacksaw blade. Gaps were cut in the closure rails. Guardrails were formed and spiked in place - the solder fill/hacksaw blade method can be used here in lieu of spiking if desired. The points were soldered to the PC board throwbar. Wiring was completed, paint touched up, and a switch throw mechanism installed. Then I ran trains. I really got a kick of watching trains run smoothly over my new turnout that I made all by myself.
tools and supplies: rail of choice, tiny spikes, ties, tie stain (if needed), ballast, rusty color paint for rail, thin rosin solder, 26 gauge magnet wire, PC board (cut for throwbar with hacksaw or shears or track saw) pliers (to bend rail and drive spikes), NMRA gauge, 2-3 three point gauges, 40 watt soldering iron, hacksaw blade, Atlas track saw (used to cut rail gaps, I didn't have a Dremel at the time), *** file, assorted needle files, sandpaper, 1/8" drill bit, drill, small paintbrush.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
If you want to go that route then fast tracks is probably the way to go, but they are not going to help with the realy fancy stuff. A way of doing it that I have seen but not personally done is I knew someone who started out their hand made buy buying old readymades and using just the rail, you could not tell unless he told you as they were on wood ties. I guess it saved him alot of work and time that he spent elsewhere. I guess the parts were rather cheap also because the average RTR user would reject alot of the turnouts but since he just wanted the rail.
You'll probably get a series of fired up responses to this question.
Making your own turnouts from scratch is and has been possible for a long time. You don't need anything more than a file, a soldering iron, a gauge, and some patience.
The Fast Tracks jigs (which I have purchased and use, for purposes of full disclosure) work wonderfully. It's easy for a new hobbyist to quickly generate accurate, good looking, and amazingly smooth turnouts in a short time using their equipment. The biggest drawback is their cost; however you can amortize that over the first 15 turnouts as compared to fancy brand turnouts from the store. Once you get rolling, you can spit one out in under an hour, and for less than $4 a turnout in raw skeleton form.
Additionally, I found the cost to be offset as an educational tool; a single jig is less than the price of a seminar, and lacking anyone local that could show me how to do it in person, the Fast Tracks system has given me the experience, knowledge, and confidence to try making them jig free.
I'd recommend before you decide on anything, you check out their free videos, and if you do decide to forgo their product, still download their free templates.
Some other modelers are also using the CVT turnout kits to good effect, they have what a lot of folks consider to be better visual detail than anything else out there.
I'd strongly encourage you to try one of these methods, and hand lay your regular rail as well. I've only been in the hobby for 2 years, but have found that hand laying track and turnouts to be very satisfying and enjoyable.
Cheers!
I'm trying to model 1956, not live in it.
Hello Navyman,
here are many kids of turnouts and crossovers.
Fast Tracks
In next time i will build the switches vor my layout.
greets
Frank
Okay, I took a deep breath, walked away from the racks of redi-built switches, er, turnouts, and swore I'd master the art of building my own since I'm finally gonna get to build the layout I've dreamed about for longer than I care to say. (Sound familiar? Watch your newspaper's classifieds for someone trying to unload an old mobile home. For the price of having it moved I got a 14x71 layout building that way last week!)
Now I'm hoping to hear from ANYBODY who has tried ANYONE's turnout kits, templates, raw materials, etc., to build their own. I'm particularly interested in reviews for products to build curved turnouts and dual gauge HO-HOn3 switches and crossovers. Looking primarily at code 83 and code 100, except smaller for the HOn3 third rail. (Has anyone ever done that? I mean, a standard gauge line with a narrow gauge rail of a smaller code?) (Am I nuts?)
Anyway, folks, many thanks in advance for any comments, observations, tips, caveats, etc., in advance.
Now all I have to do is explain to some people why I'm moving out of the house and into the new toilet-equipped train room!