Building a custom cross-over

[Penny Trains]

I love hand laid track, it always looks so cool!

It was hard to tell from the overhead shot which gauges were which.  On3 was my first guess, but the spacing between the outer rails looked wider.

Becky

[wedudler]

Penny Trains

That's some beautiful work Wolfgang!  Is that HO standard and HOn2 & 1/2 we're seeing on your module

It's H0n3 which means I model H0 but narrow gauge 3 feet.

Here's another crossing I've built for my Westport yard.

I would start with a paper drawing (I've made mine with AutoCAD) and glue this template to plywood.

Then I glue - also with carpenters white glue - PC board ties with only a drop glue to the paper. This way I can later remove the PC board ties from the paper. Then I solder the rails.

NMRA gauge is my important tool.

If you start with a crossing, expect to unsolder your first one a few times.

Wolfgang

[Penny Trains]

rrinker

 I've seen 2-rail narrow gauge and standard gauge cross over dual guage track, same basic thing except the third rail isn't in the middle. Extremely impressive. There were both crossings AND crossovers involved.

                                   --Randy

 

I can imagine!  I've always admired modelers who had the patience to lay their rails by hand!  The trick I'm trying to pull off is keeping 2 rail dc flanges away from 3rd rail ac rollers.  In a nutshell, I want to have On30 trains cross MTH RealTrax without melting motors.

Well, since I too am interrested in the intricacies of rails, guards and frogs, I'm going to follow this thread.

[rrinker]

 I've seen 2-rail narrow gauge and standard gauge cross over dual guage track, same basic thing except the third rail isn't in the middle. Extremely impressive. There were both crossings AND crossovers involved.

                                   --Randy

 

[Penny Trains]

That's some beautiful work Wolfgang!  Is that HO standard and HOn2 & 1/2 we're seeing on your module?

As a side tangent, I'm just curious whether anyone's ever tried to cross 3-rail AC and On30 DC before?

Becky

[wedudler]

I have built quite a few turnouts and crossings. I think a crossing requires more skills than a turnout.

For a crossing you need four frogs and a lot of guard rails. Did you have built dual gauge turnouts?

Here's my HowTo for crossings   And this is my latest H0 crossing

For my narrow gauge module Silver Creek I've built two curved crossings.

Wolfgang..

[cuyama]

You probably mean a "crossing", right?

From your comment, it seems that you have not handlaid track before?

There are a lot of crossing geometries available in pre-fab components, especially in HO. Many folks find that they can alter their layout plans enough to use the pre-fab crossings. The added benefit is that these are usually pre-wired, a big help.

Welcome to the forum. By the way, you might not want to put your email address in the body of your posts. The bad guys use 'bots to scrape forums for email addresses that they then use for SPAM emailings. You can always edit your reply to remove it. Just click on the "More" button next to the "Reply" button and choose "Edit"

Best of luck.

Byron

[Stan D]

Does anyone have a reference source or published method for building cross-overs that are not the standard 30, 45, 60, 90 degrees?  I know that I will need to lay my own track, but I wanted to know if there is anything published that I can follow for basic directions.

Thanks

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