Over the last two weeks I took up the challenge to build a turnout. Well after much perseverance I am quite happy with the result.
I made a few errors. The stock rails are little too short and the first frog I made disintegrated and came apart during a soldering job, so I had to basically rebuild the frog.
I used about 1 mm for the flange-ways and tried to keep close to the AMRA fine tolerance standard. I noticed that the wheels on the wagons and locos also need to be precise, so will need to look at each of the wheel-sets at a later time.
The sense of accomplishment seeing a few trains run through the point that I just built was all worth the frustration at the end. There were many times when I was about to throw in the towel! I will use this point in the yard somewhere.
I made a few sleepers using paddle-pop sticks and tried to keep to the VR profile as much as possible.
One advantage of creating your own is the spacing of the dead frog. Since I was able to reduce this area by about 3cms (on the PECO large points, this distance is about 10cm), my short wheel loco, the Y class, happily moves through this area without any pauses with both frog rails isolated. I still need to trim down the PCB sleepers and paint the sleepers. I am now keen to make another one.
I need to work out how to secure the point rails. One of the nice things about the PECO points are the spring-loaded mechs. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Here are some photos.
I made a few errors. The stock rails are little too short and the first frog I made disintegrated and came apart during a soldering job, so I had to basically rebuild the frog.
I used about 1 mm for the flange-ways and tried to keep close to the AMRA fine tolerance standard. I noticed that the wheels on the wagons and locos also need to be precise, so will need to look at each of the wheel-sets at a later time.
The sense of accomplishment seeing a few trains run through the point that I just built was all worth the frustration at the end. There were many times when I was about to throw in the towel! I will use this point in the yard somewhere.
I made a few sleepers using paddle-pop sticks and tried to keep to the VR profile as much as possible.
One advantage of creating your own is the spacing of the dead frog. Since I was able to reduce this area by about 3cms (on the PECO large points, this distance is about 10cm), my short wheel loco, the Y class, happily moves through this area without any pauses with both frog rails isolated. I still need to trim down the PCB sleepers and paint the sleepers. I am now keen to make another one.
I need to work out how to secure the point rails. One of the nice things about the PECO points are the spring-loaded mechs. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Here are some photos.
Tracing an original point and I used this as a template.
This idea was created by DKRickman and used from this site
I used super-glue to fix the sleepers to the rails
Nearly completed point.
Shelton, great work! I've used the Modratec system for holding over my points and once set up I've not had any issue at all. I've got a few point blades made so ill bring them along on Tuesday
ReplyDeleteThanks Geoff - I have now come to the realisation of the real meaning of the "model" part of model railways! Slow learner I know.
ReplyDelete