Special Switch (Turnout) needed?

[cplmckenzie]

I just put a Trolley Line into my HO layout. Ideally, it is to run through the town by exiting from the main line by a crossover switch and returning back via a "specially made" crossover switch built using flex track.

Is this even Possible? Are there any good tutorials for doing this (by someone that struggles making a good curve with flex track)?

Thanks for the help and pointing me in the right direction.

cplmckenzie

[Steven S]

cplmckenzie

via a "specially made" crossover switch built using flex track.

 

You'll have to explain that more clearly.  

There are lots of tutorials on scratchbuilding turnouts.  Just Google it.  There are also spring-loaded trolley turnouts where the points are held in place be a weak spring, but an engine entering the turnout from the diverging route can pass through it without having to manually throw the switch.  The engine just pushes the points over as it passes through, and then the points snap back after it passes.

Steve S

[cplmckenzie]

Thanks for replying,

What I basically need to make or have made is a 22" radius curved switch. Does that help?

cplmckenzie

[gmpullman]

That helps. Now—how high is the rail? Common is code 100 or code 83 in HO.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/948-8827

You can use a pair of these to make a crossover on a curve.

Good Luck, Ed

[MisterBeasley]

cplmckenzie

What I basically need to make or have made is a 22" radius curved switch. Does that help?

Do you mean a turnout with a straight rail and a divergent path that is a 22-inch radius curve?  Or a turnout that is curved on both paths, one of which is 22-inch?  If so, do you need the inner or outer curve to be 22-inch?

Atlas does make a snap-switch with a 22-inch curved path.  Other manufacturers like Peco make dual-curve turnouts.

[cplmckenzie]

Thanks,

It would be a left hand curve, inner radius 22", code 100 track, no straignt rail ( just a curve)

cplmckenzie

[hornblower]

If you are any good at soldering, go to the Fast Tracks website and look into building your own turnouts.  You don't necessarily need all of their jigs and tools if you only need to build a single turnout. However, I would recommend buying at least a frog/point filing jig as well as their PC ties.  Strip the rail out of a length of flex track and you'll be ready to go.  Having never hand laid a single rail before I started my current layout just a few years ago, I have now built around 50 left and right hand #6 turnouts as well as one curved turnout and several custom turnouts, all using Fast Tracks products and techniques.  Whenever I need to build a non-standard turnout, I carefully draw out the turnout on a piece of paper, then use rubber cement to temporarily glue the required PC ties to my drawing in the appropriate positions.  You can then form, file and solder your rails to the PC ties using your drawing and a track gauge as guides.  I like the continuous point rails of the Fast Track turnout design as they provide smoother wheel tracking and bulletproof electrical contact.  Once you build one, you'll be ready to try more!

[Anonymous]

cplmckenzie

Thanks,

It would be a left hand curve, inner radius 22", code 100 track, no straignt rail ( just a curve)

cplmckenzie

 

What is the radius of the track that is not the 22" radius curve?

Is this what you are looking for?

http://www.peco-uk.com/product.asp?strParents=3309,3322&CAT_ID=3327&P_ID=17436

[dinwitty]

rail, wood ties, vise, needlenose pliers, (2 handier) piece of homosote to build on, spikes, serious file, NMRA gauge,you can build your turnout in place, takes some planning, but you have to plan out your turnout anyways, lay out your outer rails, spike down, find your frog point, file your rail frogs, lay down and spike, build your point rails. thats a short lesson.

[RR_Mel]

I agree with those that advise building your own custom turnouts.  Early on (1951) in my model railroading adventure at the ripe old age of 14 I hand laid all my own track and made my turnouts.  If a 14 year old kid can make it work then you can too.

 

As posted above the Fast Track site has full size to HO scale downloadable turnout plans that you can use as a template.

 

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[Anonymous]

I would like to interject an opinion about building your own turnouts.   At first glance the cost of a handlaid turnout is cheaper than that of a pre-made one.  But if you remember to pay yourself for your work and there is a commercial offering for the item needed, it seems to me that the cost in time exceeds the monetary cost saved.  For instance, I need a #6 turnout.  I would expect to spend 1-2 hrs building the turnout in place, plus an additional half hour testing it to make sure it works properly.  Material cost: $15 give or take, time cost 2.5hr. Assuming that my time is what my day job pays me (we'll use $20/hr for simplicity of math), that single turnout now costs $65.  Or I could have purchased a Peco code 83 #6 for $29.   If I found that the enjoyment received from making my own turnout from scratch was worth that sort of time and effort, or if I thought it would take less time, then I would likely have a different opinion. 

That having been said, I plan to hand lay track on the remainder of my home layout, with the exception of turnouts, because I have found handlaying to be enjoyable. 

The flip side is if there is not a commercial product available, building in place is the only way. 

[dinwitty]

MR had an article how to build a double slip switch (this was maybe a late 60s-70s article as I was building a layout as a student and no money) this is how I learned to build a switch, a double slip was my first because I needed one on my layout, nothing else would work. Good lesson. Since then I have built some pretty complicated work. But today I have money I am more interested in detailed track so the spikeorama is no more unless I need some special work. Central Valley has turnout kits which worked great on my Michigan City module and standard turnouts would never fit the scheme. Any basic turnout, curved or straight uses the same lessons building it. Using flex track I will mark out the main path then mark the diverging path for the ties placement. This will echo the turnout ties planning. (drawing the edge of the flex ties on the homosote) I will spike down the main rail past the frog, the spike down the diverging rail. This alignment is your whole key to the turnout construction. I mark the points location, pull the rails out and file down the spot where the points meet. (tho technically you may not need to do this) then I slide the rails back into place. There may be many ways to make a frog but after many tries I like this technique. I take a rail and just file a long angle out on it approximating a frog, not perfect, just for placement tests, lay the rail down and spike it down for the main, using the NMRA gauge I find the common point for the main and diverging.Mark the point, pull the rail, then past my filed "frog" I might file more to refine it...THEN (trick time) past the "frog" I file into the rail making a flat angled area. THIS... (trick time) is where I place the diverging rail which I will file with an angle to fit into the notch made on my "frog rail". This stops your guessing angles for the frog, your frog is on ONE rail you can pull and file adjust and replace and test it out. Having a truck not mounted on a car aids in testing your work. Now you can lay down the diverging frog rail against the "main frog rail. Saves me a lot of headaches finding angles. Gauge and spike down. Now you can make your points. Put one rail in your vice and file flat one side of the rail, then the other side you just file in the upper rail to make the point. On the full flat side angle file the bottom/side, this is where it meets the main rail. Take this pointed rail and spike it into place for the turnout even tho the rail extends beyond the point, use the NMRA gauge to find the point where the flange "nicks" the rail...Mark it, 2 needlenose pliers, bend the rail at this point, this makes part of the wing rail, clip a little distance off,, short bend the end and tadaa you have your point, spike it down, repeat for the other point in mirror. Make your guard rails and you have your turnout. And it doesnt cost 15 bucks, prolly a lot less. The other trick is figuring out how to throw the turnout, I'll leave that up to you. A PC tie, or some piano wire, there may be many techniques.

[richhotrain]

RR_Mel

I agree with those that advise building your own custom turnouts.  Early on (1951) in my model railroading adventure at the ripe old age of 14 I hand laid all my own track and made my turnouts.  If a 14 year old kid can make it work then you can too.

 

I'm not so sure about that. There are a whole bunch of things that a 14 year old can do better than a 70 year old.   

[BigDaddy]

There is a gratis MRVP video on laying a #6 for anyone who was clueless, like me, on how it's actually done.  http://mrv.trains.com/how-to/track/2015/07/winston-salem-southbound-series-handlaying-track---part-4

Cheap as I am, it's one part of the hobby I'm willing to pay someone to do.  In fact there are people who commercially build custom turnouts, so you can get anything you want.

[RR_Mel]

richhotrains

I'm not so sure about that. There are a whole bunch of things that a 14 year old can do better than a 70 year old.   

 

Rich

 

Tell me about it Rich!  A 14 year old would put me to shame now.  But at 79 I still give almost anything a shot.  I’m kicking around attempting making a double slip just for kicks.  I don’t need one but it looks like a neat project.  I’m thinking about ordering some of the Fast Tracks printed circuit board ties, that’s something I haven tried in my 65 year HO career.  Five years ago I kitbashed four Atlas Custom Line turnouts and a Atlas 19° crossover into a double crossover that works better than any of the ready made crossovers, and I operate it with a single Tortoise.

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[hornblower]

cplmckenzie

Several of the responses are refering to hand spiking rail to wood ties.  This is NOT how you build a turnout using Fast Track products and methods.  The Fast Tracks method of soldering rails to PC board ties is much easier and produces a much stronger turnout. The finished turnout is similar to a commercially produced turnout in that it is a piece of sectional track that can be picked up and placed anywhere on the layout.  I also think that the continuous point rail design of the Fast Track style turnout would best fit your needs for a spring turnout as you can design in exactly how much spring tension you need as you build the turnout.  It is easy to bend your point rails so they favor one route or the other.  Should you need to reduce the spring tension to allow the wheels of the trolleys to push the point rails over, you can file the base of the rail thinner along the working length of the point rails.

Most of my previous layouts used Atlas turnouts.  My current layout has only turnouts I built myself.  The former Atlas turnouts never produced the superior tracking qualities that my hand built turnouts give me.  About the only way I see a derailment on one of my hand built turnouts is when the turnout is thrown the wrong way when a train enters the turntout from the diverging end of the turnout.

[cuyama]

Given that the Original Poster is a relative newcomer and says of himself 

cplmckenzie

someone that struggles making a good curve with flex track)?

Personally, I think telling him to go hand-lay this special trackwork is not the best advice at the current stage of his skills. Especially since there is possibly an off-the-shelf curved turnout that will get close to what he actually needs ... if only he will come back and further explain what it is that he actually needs.

Even a spring switch (if that is what he needs) can be rigged with an off-the-shelf turnout.

[DSchmitt]

I have found that often (not always) a regular straight turnout can be inserted with relatively minor rearangement of the curve,  and without compromising min radius.

If he has a program like XTrkCAD, SCARM, etc, he should play around with it to see what will fit.

[cplmckenzie]

Hello,

OP here, hmmm, yeah.  am grateful for and reading all the responses. I guess I have been spending the past few days following up on several.

In particular, this one from Ed was perfect except at the link he supplied I couldn't find anything Code 100.

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That helps. Now—how high is the rail? Common is code 100 or code 83 in HO.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/948-8827

You can use a pair of these to make a crossover on a curve.

Good Luck, Ed

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And currently looking in the archives for this article suggestion...

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Posted by dinwitty on Thursday, March 31, 2016 5:48 AM
 
MR had an article how to build a double slip switch (this was maybe a late 60s-70s article as I was building a layout as a student and no money) this is how I learned to build a switch,

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One of the more recent replies was of particular interest. About how there were people\places that would do custom building for you (as the last reply nailed it. Skill level is less than a beginner as I just started this hobby August past)

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I just wish they had mentioned wher some of these people\places were.

Please, keep the replies coming as anyone new to this wonderful (I am enjoying every minute (hours)) I spend working on mine) hobby, I am reading and learning.

Matter of fact, I just spent the day redoing a major section of my layout. In a previous post of mine I indicated I was having problems getting a load up a grade.

After supplying the length and height of my grade and someone helping with the math I saw that I had grades of 6%, way to high.

So in redoing this section I was able to solve two problems with my layout, the grade issue and a turnout that the left curve was going into an uphill grade and the straight was going into a downhill grade, trying to get the proper twist in the turnout was impossible and 80% of the time whatever went over it derailed.

So my lesson there was, I was trying to attempt the impossible.

So, please, bear with me and keep the replies coming.

Thanks a lot

cplmckenzie

 

 

 

[cuyama]

I don't think that any of us can be sure that we understand what you are trying to do. A sketch would help a lot.

Code 83 turnouts can be used with layouts that are otherwise code 100. There are transition rail joiners sold for just such a purpose. Note that the inner route of the Walthers turnout is effectively about 2" sharper than labeled (about 18"R). This is the case with all the Walthers curved turnouts.

There are curved turnouts sold in Code 100, PECO has one.

Note that few, if any, of the curved turnouts will fit a smooth curve perfectly.

Again, a sketch of what you are trying to do would help others help you.

Good luck with your layout.

[BigDaddy]

I think I got this from a recent thread on custom crossings. I have no first hand experience with the firm:  http://ccturnouts.com/Purchase-Page-HO.html

[cplmckenzie]

Ohhh,

so you can mix code 83 and code 100 track together???

[BigDaddy]

Yep, Atlas makes connectors.  There also is a thread since I joined in the last 6 mo. about other ways to modify track or rail joiners to make it work.  About 1/2 way down the page is a "SEARCH THE COMMUNITY" box.  I couldn't find it quickly, but it's there

[dinwitty]

I will not label any switch building better or worse than another, you look at the problem and use the method that suits. I can build turnouts without fast tracks. I can build turnouts using PC ties and soldering on the bench and move them anywhere. I can onsite build a custom turnout in place. heres what I mean about special work. http://www.qtm.net/dinwitty/rr/SpecialTrack2.jpg all handlaid I can't post the pic so grab the link and try it, I'll try later

[Anonymous]

cuyama

There are curved turnouts sold in Code 100, PECO has one.

Peco actually has 3 different ones

The standard code 100 60", 30" curved turnout SL-86/SL-87.  And 2 Set track curved turnouts ST-242/ST-243 (tight radii) and ST-244/ST-245 (Larger radii).  I cant find my Peco brochure that includes the radius for those, but they are very tight by US layout standards.

Edit: Walthers only seems to have the larger of the 2, and they state the radius:

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/552-244

 Inside Radius 17-1/4" 43.8cm Outside: 19-7/8" 50.5cm

[Anonymous]

cplmckenzie

Ohhh,

so you can mix code 83 and code 100 track together???

 

Yes they make a rail joiner for that.  Atlas part number 551.  There are also commercial Code 83/100 transition track pieces, but if memory serves they are sort of expensive.

[cuyama]

BMMECNYC

Peco actually has 3 different ones

That's correct, I should have been clearer. Because the SetTrack versions have pretty sharp frogs, I usually only suggest the StreamLine part.