If you are building turnouts from scratch it is likely that you will have to drill a hole in the throwbar if you want to operate it with a slide switch, servo or a Tortoise Switch Machine. I had been drilling the holes in N scale throwbars with a pin vise I bought from Fast-Tracks and it worked OK, but to me was slow. I bought a 5 volt/USB powered drill off of eBay and although the drill ran fine I wasn't very successful using it to drill the holes in the narrow throwbars. It spins very fast and the bit would wonder around so was hard to center. I finally brightened up a bit and used the pin vise to just start a hole in the throwbar. One doesn't need to drill all the way through with it, just get a hole started, then switch to the electric drill to finish the hole quickly. The drill is better than I expected it to be and I can see using it for other projects down the road. A little more info/pictures here ..... http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Trackwork/page-9.html Sumner
So those are the N scale throwbars? I never trusted the narrow N scale throwbars and us HO on My N turnouts. Do they hold up well?
Good point and I don't know since I'm getting ready to start laying track and using the turnouts I built. I used Fast-Tracks N scale PCB ties and throwbars for the first turnouts I made. I was worried about this so started cutting the throwbars a little wider than the ones that I got from Fast-Tracks. The ones shown in the pictures I cut from printed circuit board and they are about 1/3 wider than the ones you get from Fast-Tracks in N scale. Thanks for that input and I'll look into the HO throwbars if I have problems. How are you throwing your turnouts? Sumner
I throw mine with a mix of controllers including Bluepoint under table manual, Cobalt stall motors, and the yard has basic caboose ground throws. The yard turnouts are all dead frog but in time I plan to add frog juicers. All controllers work well. I no longer use the Bullfrogs as the throw at the fascia was to great. I didn't care for knobs protruding outward or the need for a gaping hole to mount them deeper.
