Building fiNe-scale turnouts
Intro
This sequence is an attempt to illustrate my construction method for the building of points that is generally applicable indifferent of the complexity of your turnout. The basis of the method is a drawing of the turnout to be built. For this a scaled photocopy of the real thing suffices but a dedicated produced drawing is often clearer and sharper particularly for the more complex variations. This drawing is just a help for the location of the sleepers, the positioning of the first rail and the curve in stock rails. Actually all dimensions are relative and obtained by using jigs for keeping track gauge. The method is illustrated in building a standard turnout 1:9 based upon a drawing from 1946 from the Dutch State Railways. Although the method is illustrated on the system of soldering rails to copperclad sleepers this is by no means the only method. In principle the same method can be applied to gluing track to wooden sleepers or nailing them.
The preparations and tools used are illustrated in the first chapter. A second chapter contains photos pieced together from various point building sessions and therefor also show some slight variations in lefthand or righthand versions during construction. Some were mirrored to be less conspiciously different. The construction series is extended with examples and various operating mechanisms.
The actual process on how to use the tools is still to be illustrated, don't hold your breath but it may come at some future point in time.
Tools
What you need on tools:- Steel ruler
- files (small and large)
- soldering iron
- 0.5 mm thin multicore solder
- liquid flux
- small expendable brush
- track jigs
- building base (piece of MDF or Melamine board)
- hard brush (old toothbrush)
- cutting pliers
- long wheelbase wagon
- minidrill with sanding disc, grinding wheel and polishing disc
- minivice (or set of prepared hinges)
- track jigs
- preparing the sleepers
- setting up the base board
Construction sequence
DESCRIPTION: This photo shows a paper copy of a scaled down drawing of a turnout stuck on a suitable working platform. In this case a piece of melamine board. The drawing is kept in place using transparent self adhesive plastic foil which enables to use the platform more than once. The next step is to stick on the sleepers on their positions. You can glue these with white glue and take the finished point in the end off using water. However thin double sided tape works faster and is less messy.
DESCRIPTION: Here you see the stage of laying out the sleepers. In this case the association turnout sleepers are prepared in an not (yet) illustrated stage. The sleepers on the photo are reduced in width from 2mm to 1.6mm using a simple tool to hold the sleeper and using a minidrill with sanding disc (or milling machine) to reduce the width sticking out. The sleepers are pressed onto clear double sided tape.
DESCRIPTION: A detail photo of the crossing. note the sleepers lying perpendicular to the half angle instead of the main stock rail such as normal for UK track.
DESCRIPTION: Building a batch of points works more efficient as items can be replicated.
DESCRIPTION: Here we see the hardware used for building points. A small vice, a small collection of files, tweezers, a soldering iron, solder, a small jar with Purine flux, a collection of track jigs, toolbit for the minidrill (minidrill itself not shown)
DESCRIPTION: NOTE: detail photo missing showing the cutout for foot?! but see also photo #27 where you can see how much of the foot is taken away when viewed from bottom upwards.
DESCRIPTION: A good way to start is with the straight stock rail as this can be used to line-out the entire point. An alternative is to start with the crossing. The stock rail is fixed using a ruler as straight edge. It is first temporarily fixed with about 6 joints evenly spread over the length.
DESCRIPTION: Next step is fitting the crossing. The nose is filed using the vise and files. The length of the filed section should be angle * 0.5mm thus for a 1:9 standard point this is 4.5 mm. The circular disc type is setting the exact width at the nose. The bridge type is also keeping the rail upright at the right distance. Three of these suffice with 1 disc type.
DESCRIPTION: Different view, needing sharper photo.
DESCRIPTION: Adding the other half of the crossing.
DESCRIPTION: view of entire scene
DESCRIPTION: Shows how to testfit the wing rails on the crossing using a 0.5 mm thick strip as jig. There is absolute no worry about soldering this lot fixed, thus brass will do for this.
DESCRIPTION: Shows how to mount the wing rails on the crossing using a 0.5 mm thick strip as jig. Using the jig for 9mm distance bridging the crossing rail.
DESCRIPTION: Adding the curved rail using 3 track jigs.
DESCRIPTION: Checking the nose with the disc type again.
DESCRIPTION: Fixing the check rails for the crossing.
DESCRIPTION: the crossing completed
DESCRIPTION: testing the curved blade. Note the disc type in use to test the width at the blade end. Filing the blade using large file and vise needs a photo.
DESCRIPTION: Detail showing the disc type and blade. Note the cut-away foot on the curved stock rail. A more detailed photo of this is welcome.
DESCRIPTION: Missing photo of fixing straight blade. This photo shows the testing of the curved crossing with a (relative) long wheel base wagon. If it bumps or derails adjustment is of the crossing is necessary.
DESCRIPTION: Close-up of the crossing and the fixing of the wing rails on the stock rails.
DESCRIPTION: If this is all OK, you can think about soldering all remaining sleepers.
DESCRIPTION: Before you take them off the board first clean the sides of the rail using a skrawker for removing superfluous solder. Clean sleepers with a de-solder wick and riffle file. Gapping the sleepers using a knife blade can be seen on the lower photo. Lifting the point from the double sided tape is easy when using a hairdryer, warming the tape softens the glue.
DESCRIPTION: Other results: a batch of double slips. The lower one has an asymmetric curved crossing, one end is built 1:8 angle, the other 1:10 giving a curve in the tracks. The over-long rails are adjustments to fit them on their specific places on the baseboard avoiding short pieces of track and reducing the amount of joints for higher reliability.
DESCRIPTION: A close-up of the shouldered prongs which are used to connect the blades to the turnout operating mechanism.
DESCRIPTION: A close-up of the shouldered prongs, top view this time. The prongs are made of 0.3 mm NS wire. Note also the finishing of the blade tip in a gentle curve so that the tip lies beneath the top of the stock rail. This way of finishing is necessary for the sharp 2mm wheel flanges in order to reduce the tendency to climb over the tip and wringing itself between stock and blade tip and take the wrong track. This way no joggle in the stock rail is necessary as that is not only not prototypical and but also far from optimal in looks and way finding properties. A flange with less acute angle on the wheels is more prototypical but you have to account for visiting stock anyhow and turning all wheels yourself is simply too much work.
DESCRIPTION: The gap in the baseboard can be covered with a piece of plastic card with openings at the right place. In this photo you can also notice how much is taken away from the foot of the rail.
DESCRIPTION: Fitting the point on the baseboard and the gap for the prongs.
DESCRIPTION: Below baseboard you can do what you want. This is only one form of TOU using a micro-switch for the polarity. This is the old rigid construction from massive brass but the all plastic version suffices just as well and is easier to produce.
DESCRIPTION: If you are more in favour for electronic switching then a dpdt relay (Conrad) is an option. This is a version under test on one of the double slips. The four tubes for the prongs can be seen here. Each prong can be adjusted with its own screw for setting the right distance between blade and stock rail.
DESCRIPTION: This is an N-gauge point using a more prototype lever and two bars. Each tongue has its own bar. A tiny piece of insulated board of 0.3mm thickness connects both bars. Sleeves of insulation prevent short between bar and stock rails. The loop prevents over strain but also connects to the under floor micro-switch for polarisation. An article for the lever construction can be found on the 2mm Archive CD-rom.
DESCRIPTION: A very nice lever frame to UK prototype complete with inter-locking built by Bill Newton (Scaleforum 2002).
DESCRIPTION: An article on design and construction of a simple lever frame can be found here: leverframe
copyright: Henk Oversloot
date: 21 mar 2006
date: 15 mar 2013 republished