Where can I find either a kit or diagrams/instructions for installing remote (6" to 12") remote manual turnout controls?
Kit: Fast Tracks Bullfrog (also available assembled)
Assembled: Blue Point, Humpyard Purveyance
DIY: slide or toggle switches, door bolts (google some of these in reference to model railroading and you will find pictures and how-to's)
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Someone here posted a Caboose Hobbies ground throw, tunneled just under that surface through one of those flexlink tubes that Blue Point uses to operate the turnout
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Lehigh Willie Where can I find either a kit or diagrams/instructions for installing remote (6" to 12") remote manual turnout controls?
Try the Hump Yard http://www.humpyard.com/
I use 3-way household light switches The common goes to the frog wire and the other two poles to + and - power feeds. I use dowels and/or stiff wire rodding to control the throw and power feeding with a knob on the fascia for control.
I standardize all knobs to be "in" when on the normal route and "out" when lined for the diverging route. Many of the knobs will be fine like those, but for many others the meaning won't be clear as the knob would be out when it should be in to indicate normal. For those, I add a small bellcrank arrangement in order to "reverse" the route on the turnout control so all are properly "in" when on the normal route.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
mlehmen
Great photos. I am using the same system which I found in a article (MR,RMC?) which I can find if someone would like to use it. My biggest issue has been with reversing the direction of the throw on some switches. Could you please tell me where you got the bell cranks ou are using?
Thanks
wdcrvr
wdcrvrCould you please tell me where you got the bell cranks ou are using?
Pretty sure a short article was in MR, but quite possibly something in RMC, too.
Sure, the crank in the pics is from old RC control parts, back when things were heavy and gas-powered. It came in a pack of 5 or 6 in different sizes.
But I've since taken to using brass rectangular shapes, cutting a piece maybe 2" long, drilling a center pivot hole and a hole at each end for the links. Does the same thing. I like the tubing because it's rigid and pivots easily, but hardwood, suitable hard plastic, etc could also be used.
They should be available in just about any hobby shop if you don't want to make your own. Even the ones that don't have much or any trains have RC stuff.
rrinkerEven the ones that don't have much or any trains have RC stuff.
Randy,
I would think so, but RC is getting to be a lot like model railroading. YMMV as there's lots more RTR and lots fewer parts for scratchbuilding seems to be the rule there now, too.
Hmm, maybe. My real LHS (as in the closest one of all) is a Hobbytown and they are not much for trains but they have plenty of RC parts. Handy for that piece of fuel line I bought to use as a drive shaft in my brass RS-3. And while out in Buffalo I stopped in a shop on the recommendation of some locals. And while the Erie caboose in their parking lot might lead you to think they had a lot of model railroad stuff, you'd be wrong. Lots of science kits (but not as much as Hobbytown), lots of slot cars and RC, only 1 row of trains and 1 row of paints and supplies. And the train shelves were mostly bare.
Similar to Mike's, though a bit more petite, I recall a guy who use slide switches (like those things on the face of MRC powerpacks). The contacts did power routing. He drilled a hole (see Mike's) in the tab, for a brass wire. He ran the wire through brass tubing. A 90 degree bend brought it up through the tie bar.
Very elegant. And cheap.
Ed
Ed,
I have a few of the micro-slide switch ones, also. Where I use them is generally in places where crossmembers or other obstructions block access to installing a manual control or Tortoise underneath. Here's one in the background on å curved turnout I built.