J.B., I'm glad you brought this up, since I don't think I explained it very well last night. I was pretty tired! So this post can go along with post #113 above. The small gaps that are cut into the throwbar next to the closure rail points will stop the power from going to the stock rails and causing a short. When the turnout is thrown, the closure rail points make contact with the stock rails and the feeders under the layout are now connected via the tortoise switch machine, and power is sent throughout the turnout. The important thing that needs to be done (and I stressed this when posting it before) is that the locomotive wheels or car wheels can not touch the opposite closure rail when passing through the turnout or it will short. This is why I move the closure rails in far enough to clear. Hope this helps! -Mike Edit: just seen Jamie's post. He explains it pretty good. Thanks Jamie!
Michael, thanks for the kind words Yeah, I never would have thought about doing anything like this. My mindset was if I couldn't buy it, then I wouldn't do it, but now it's totally different. I have found that I enjoy doing quite a few things that years ago seemed like way too much trouble or way too risky, hand laying turnouts and detailing locomotives are the top of the list. And I totally agree with you, the more stuff on my layout I build, the more satisfaction I have with it. Kinda funny how that happens. And thank you for posting your experiences with different types of roadbed. I've only used homasote, but from my quick experience with cork, I can see that working just fine in N scale. -Mike
Mike... I am gonna get over Sedona way sometime soon. I sure would like to buy you a round or two. This has been such a great thread. I saved all the pages to my HD. I dont ever want to lose em. Heck...Even I might attempt handlaid stuff someday...LOL. ^ 5 :thumbs_up: :tb-cool: .
Just a quick afterthought Mike... If you hadnt had to write all the explainations, take pics etc etc...on average how long does it take you (hours wise) to make a turnout? TIA. .
George, anytime you are over this side of the mountain, get a hold of me! You're welcome to come by anytime As to your other question, take away the pictures and the writing, and I could go from this to this in about 45 min or so. Depends on how long I'd wait for the glue on the ties to dry. -Mike
I apologize, I simply missed the part about cutting the throwbar and was too hasty in looking back through the thread. I thought you hadn't talked about it. I knew it had to be there somewhere!
Pastoolio, Very excelent work Cant wait for the curved one!! Don't sell yourself short man, this thread and your work are well worth a published book. If i were you I certainly consider doing it. It could certainly help fund your habbit, uh... hobby!:tb-cool: Happy Modelin!
Mike thanks so much for the time and effort you have put into this thread. A fantastic achievement that I will look at often as I hope to do some track building my self one day. Thanks again mate.
Mike, thanks for one of the most enjoyable, informative, amazing threads ever posted on this board. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it end to end, and bookmarked this specific thread to my favorites for later refence this year as I build my first Hon3 layout. I am switching scales away from N. I look forward to seeing what else you might post...
I will say that before visiting your website and following this thread, I will not hesitate to handlay a turnout. Previously, I never even would have considered it. Jamie
Like the others, thank you for a memorable thread that has really inspired me. It is great to see such craftsmanship at work. Thank you for your time and effort to take these pictures and explain it all to us! Great work! :thumbs_up::thumbs_up:
Guys, again, you are all too kind! I really appreciate your comments I'm just hoping that by doing this thread, it will motivate you to possibly try this aspect of the hobby. It really opens up a whole other world when you don't need to plan your track laying around commercially available turnouts. Ok, as promised, I've got a curved turnout in the works. Doing a non standard turnout is where the advantage of hand laying comes in at, and it's great to be able to put a turnout pretty much anywhere you want one. So let's start this curved one. The place it's going into, which is just down from the previous #10 turnout. I needed to find the centerline of the siding track, so out came the ruler. The curve is a 22" radius, even though the ruler says 23 (the hole in the ruler is drilled at the 1" line) continued in next post -Mike
Here is the 22" radius line drawn The spur track that comes off the siding is going to a future warehouse, so I figured out where I wanted this spur to head to and that ended up giving me a 16" radius off the siding track. So using the ruler again, I marked where the 16" radius hits the 22" radius and drew the line in from there. Now we'll do a temp. spike down of the siding track Once this track is in place and the curve is smooth, we'll trace each side of the ties. In this pic, I've already traced out the diverging route's ties. Make sure you use a sharp pencil! We'll need as fine of lines as possible down where the tracks come together. Now, drawing the centerline isn't the only way you can do this. Because I knew where I wanted my spur to end up and because I wanted a smooth curve in the track, this gave me the reason to put in the centerline. If you are doing a siding/spur track and it's just going to go off the main track to where ever, you really don't need to find the center line, all you will have to do is take that piece of flex and temporarily put it down to however you want it to go and trace the ties. Centerline is not a big deal. Just make sure that you place part of the flex track on the already existing centerline of your main/siding track, since you will need to have a smooth transition from that track to your spur. next up is finding the throwbar -Mike
Ok, here is a pic of all the tie ends traced out. Now we'll need to find where to put the throwbar. So find where the outline of each route comes together at. This is where it's important to use a sharp pencil. Now take and make a mark for the throwbar. This doesn't have to be exact, but we want it as close to perfect as possible. It's better to put the throwbar closer to the split in the pencil lines than further away. Now that we've drawn in the throwbar, we can take two of our 16' ties and sit them in place on each side of our throwbar location. I also take and put down 4 more ties past this. You can use wood ties or some scrap plastic ties. Now grab another 16' tie and set it in place at the other end of the turnout, where the ends of the tie hit the outter traced tie lines. This is the end of the turnout. Here is the whole thing. next up is putting the ties in the tie jig and gluing them down. -Mike
Now that we know where the ends of the turnout are located, we can measure it to see how many ties it's going to take to make it. Use any type of measuring tape, just be sure it will bend to the curve of the turnout. This turnout came back as just under 8 and a half inches. So I'll take the measuring tape over to the tie jig and put in enough ties for that distance. Now we'll take the masking tape and stick it down on the ties like we did with the #10. But this time, we'll need to make the masking tape skinnier, since we will be bending it to fit the curve. I just take and cut down the middle of the brown masking tape. This will have enough "give" in it to curve the ties. Take and put down your choice of adhesive (I use liquid nails) and start putting down the tie strip, starting at the skinny end and working your way back to the fat end. Make the end of the wood ties follow the traced line. As you go, you might need to move the ties back and fourth to get them to follow the curve. Once you have all the wood ties following the traced line, go back over them and check to see if any ties got out of line or became crooked. Fix if needed. Then give the whole tie strip a final push down into the glue. Once the glue has dried, pull the tape and you should have a nice smooth curved tie strip. Once everything dries, we'll take and sand the top and start laying rail. =) -Mike
some people can, others wipe the drool off there keyboards :thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up: next we want to see a double crossover:tb-biggrin:
Mike, You are going to have to just STOP! With each new installment, you having me considering how much work it would be to take up the blue foam on the portions of my layout where no track or scenery work has been done! This is model railroad PORN for sure. :thumbs_up:
Sorry guys, got caught up in wiring....... I'll put down the autoracks and round up the porn actors and get busy this weekend. :tb-wink: -Mike
