A Turnout Weekend

Well it turned out to be a fairly productive weekend.  I finally got to give my new Fast Tracks products a try.  I had purchased a On30 #6 fixture, a #6 PointForm tool, and a StockAid tool.  If you're not familiar with the Fast Tracks line-up, the fixture holds the PointForm holds the rail for precise filing of both the frog and switch points, the StockAid tool holds the rail at the precise angle to file away the rail base on the stock rails (the outer most rails of a turnout), and the fixture holds the rail and PCB ties in place while soldering.  It's entirely possible to build a turnout without these tools, but they make it so much more pleasant and predictable that I felt it was worth it.

I watched the training videos through twice before giving it a go.  Fast Tracks has done a great job of demonstrating every step on video which is a huge plus.

My first turnout took about 2 and a half hours, with me only making a few minor mistakes that were easily recovered from.  Overall I was very happy with the result and I've read from other owners that after the first two or three the process becomes much quicker.

I didn't have any acid paste flux on hand, only the rosin based type, so my solder wasn't as nice as it could have been, but I'll remedy that shortly.

Feeling a bit inspired by the success of the turnout, I headed to the basement to build a tie jig to set the tie spacing when I lay out the wood ties for a turnout.  I used a dado blade on my table saw and a lot of layout work to setup and create this:

It looked really nice until I held it up to the turnout and realized the spacing was too short.  Ah well, maybe I'll try again next weekend.

Still with some items on my todo list, I gave a shot at an article I recently found in the 2012 edition of On30 Annual.  For some reason, I had picked up the 2010, 2011, and 2013 editions of the Annual, but had missed the 2012 edition.  A week or two ago I picked it up at Caboose Hobbie's black friday sale, and in it was an article about building your own switch throw "machines".

I'm no stranger to turnout throw methods, but yet I still haven't found one yet that I liked.  I first tried Caboose Industries ground throws.  I know these are a favorite of a number of modelers.  I could never get them to mount correctly on foam.  My guess is they only work well on plywood or perhaps Homasote, neither of which I find myself using a whole lot as sub-roadbed.

Next I tried the Bullfrog from Fast Tracks.  These looked very good, and I  purchased and built about 10 or so, but I could never really get them to operate like I wanted.  Looking back now, I suspect my issue was that I needed to use a thinner wire for the throw.

Then things got out of hand an I purchased a Tortoise, Bluepoint, and Mole.  All of these options could be made to work, but there were things I didn't care for about them, and price was an issue as well.  I also considered various servo style turnout throws, but again price was an issue.

Given that history, I was extremely interested when I found an article by Russ Watson on page 87 of the Annual that showed how to build your own turnout throws from a common household light switch.  Slap on the forehead moment -- what a simple but brilliant idea.

So, you know, I had to give that a try.  Nothing about this is specific to On30.  This method could be used for any scale.  The article is about 3 or so pages long and has step-by-step instructions with pictures on how the author did this.  I looked over the article and modified the design slightly, building a small test setup to see if this works.

I used a scrap of 1" blue foam and a door to make a mini layout test module.  It's only about 12" x 12" but it was enough to test the concept.

On my modified design I used two 2-56 screws from microfasteners.com and a groove that was already in the plastic to create the "chokepoint" that the throw rod pivots from.  The two small screws form a bridge over this groove, keeping the throwbar in place.  This method avoided having to build a pivot point out of styrene like the author does.

The throwbar itself has some form to it, it bends out, then back in to avoid some of the pieces of the switch.  I actually learned this approach from the Bullfrog which does that to avoid hitting a nut that mounts it's pivot arm in place.

I also used screws through the original mounting holes to affix the throw to the bottom of the layout.  This has the advantage that the holes are spaced such that the throw can be moved around to the perfect position before locking them down (a huge plus if you're like me and never seem to drill turnout control holes in the exact correct spot).

The missing piece from this setup is the control rod, which would be a 2nd hole drilled into the switch body and extending to some kind of knob on the fascia.  The switch type is a "3-way" switch which is basically SPDT, perfect for controlling the frog polarity.

My favorite part, along with the fact that it's so easy to build, is the cost.  The switch was $1.65 at my local Lowe's, and the screws were maybe another 20-30 total.  Add on the cost of the throw bar and control rod, and these could probably be built for about $3.00-3.50 each.  Now that's awesome!