TUTORIAL: Covering over turnout motors

[Anonymous]

As a newbie I've had no end of marvellous advice from this forum. Now I'm happy to be able give something back. I've developed what I consider a nifty method for covering the hole in your baseboard when you install a turnout with motor attached - in my case Peco.

Here 'tis:

http://www.igmusic.co.nz/turnouttutorial.html

Have fun!

[MisterBeasley]

Thanks! That's a very nicely done photo-tutorial. The every-step-of-the-way approach makes it very easy to follow.

[scubaterry]

A great idea I will keep in mind when I put in future T/O's. Its such a pain ballasting around a T/O. Now it will be a breeze. Tks
Terry[8D]

[Seamonster]

Just came across your post (haven't been on the forum for a long time). Great idea! I'm certainly going to use it in the future. Wish I had known about it long ago. I'll try thin styrene and duct tape--should work the same, except the tape is grey. Now I just have to figure out how to cover an existing hole and get under the turnout. I'm going to try long slots in a piece of styrene. There'll be more places for ballast to drop through, but if I'm careful it should be okay.

[pcarrell]

A very slick idea! Thanks!

[HarryHotspur]

What purpose does the tape serve? Any ideas?

[CascadeBob]

Excellent idea! I think the tape probably acts as a water-proof barrier to liquid ballast glue that is used to hold the ballast in place. I don't see any reason why you couldn't use a sheet of plain thin styrene that's thin enough to make holes in it with a hobby knife. You would probably have to color it a dark color so it wouldn't show through the ballast. One problem with this arrangement is if you glue your ballast with a liquid glue, this liquid glue might find it's way through the slot into the switch machine. To avoid this problem you might consider the method for dry ballasting turnouts described in an article in the May 1990 issue of "Model Railroader" on page 98. This method involves putting black electrical tape with the sticky side up, i.e., towards the rails on the underside of the ties of the turnout. Dry ballast is applied to the top of the turnout and pressed down between the ties to be held in place by the sticky side of the tape. Perhaps this methods could be used in conjunction with the method suggested above, at least in the immediate area of the throwbar and switch points in order to keep the liquid glue from penetrating through to the switch machine.

[Anonymous]

What purpose does the tape serve?

I used the black tape because it was black! I figured it wouldn't show too much once the ballasting was done. Dark card or thin dark styrene would work just as well. Incorporating RFinch's dry ballasting technique would be great too.