Rob, thanks for the info! I ordered up some of the short size to see how they work. Like you said thou, it might be hard to use regular pliers for spiking. I'm also wondering how they will hold up. Because they are smaller, it might be necessary to put more spikes in. Guess I'll find out. -Mike
Now that we have the stock rail on the straight route done, we'll put in the stock rail for the diverging route. Since this side curves, we'll need to add a slight bend in the rail. Take and hold the rail with one hand and using your other hand's thumb and finger, pull the rail through them while bending the rail and applying pressure to it. Doing many light passes rather than one or two strong passes works the best and won't kink the rail. It doesn't take much to give it a nice smooth bend. The bend doesn't have to be exact, just close enough for now. Once you get a nice bend in it, put the throwbar end into the adjacent track and mark the other side for cutting. Mark with the Xacto blade, cut the rail, and do another check fit. With the rail curved and connected to each end's track, we'll mark where to file the rail for the points, just like we did with the other side. File this side just like the other side. (refer to the previous post on this). Clean the burrs off the rail and put the rail back into place. Next we'll spike this rail in a few places and determine the frog point. -Mike
Starting at the throwbar side of the turnout, we'll take and spike in the diverging route's rail. Take a track gauge and put it in place on the rails. Here is a pic of both kinds I have. Either of them work great, but I prefer the 3 point gauge since I can keep it closer to where I'm spiking the rail. Once in place, spike the first tie next to the throwbar area. Do both sides of the rail. Then jump back and do the same tie that you spiked the other side on. Do both sides of the rail here also. Now that we have the "skinny" side of the turnout spiked down, we'll go to the "fat" end of the turnout. I have a temporary piece of flex track spiked down on the diverging route. This is lined up with the centerline I drew on the homasote earlier. We are going to need to keep the stock rail on the turnout straight with the flex track rail, and parallel with the centerline on the homasote for a little ways until we find the frog point area. On a turnout this large, we can come in quite a few ties and put in some spikes, since the frog isn't going to be located right back at the end (unlike on a smaller turnout). So come in about 8 to 10 ties, remembering to put this side's stock rail spikes in the same ties as the other side's stock rail. You will always want to keep each side's spikes in the same ties to keep everything visually pleasing and even. The whole point of this is to keep the rail straight while it passes through the frog area. We don't want it curving at the frog. Here is a pic of keeping the stock rail straight with the flex track rail and adding some spikes. On this turnout, I happen to come in 11 ties. (ignore the pencil marks on the ties, got ahead of myself) Now that we have 2 spikes in, we need to make sure this rail stays straight, so add a few more to it. (again, ignore the pencil marks, got ahead of myself) Next up is the finding the frog point. -Mike
Now that the diverging route's stock rail is in place, we can now find the frog point. There are 2 ways to do this. 1. Using the paper template. Since we are doing a standard sized turnout and using a paper template, we can lay it over the top of the turnout to find the frog point. Using something sharp (I used a pencil), poke a hole through the template at the frog point and mark the turnout below. 2. Using some trucks. If we are doing a turnout that we can not use a paper template with, we can use a truck to find it. Take and set one side's wheels on the stock rail of the straight route and make a mark on the ties at the center of the wheel on the other side. Now put the truck on the diverging route's stock rail and mark the center of the wheels again. Mark each side untill you come together. This is also why we need to keep the diverging route's stock rail straight in this area, to help find the frog. Now that we know where the point of the frog is, we can finish putting in the spikes on the stock rails for this area. Spike from the point of the frog back towards the "fat" side of the turnout. Do Not spike past the frog point on the diverging stock rail. That comes later. In this pic, I have finished the spikes on each stock rail from the frog back. You can also see the dash lines on the ties from using the truck/wheel to find the frog point. The small circle in the homasote between the ties is the mark made from using the paper template. Notice how they both are in the same place. =) Next up is making the frog rails. -Mike
Up tonight is the frog point. This part of the turnout is the most critical and the hardest to get correct, so we'll call in the help of a Fast Tracks point former. This tool allows you to file down the rail at the correct angle to form the frog point. Before I bought one of these, it would take quite a bit of time filing and checking to get the rail correct. This tool cut the time down immensely. It is not needed, but I do recommend it. Here is the link again: Turnouts : Point Former Tool As I stated earlier, these come in all the popular turnout sizes, but you don't need to buy a bunch of them, just one or two, depending on the turnout sizes you have planned to do. I personally bought a #6 and a #8. I figured I'd be doing alot of #6's and with the #8, I can get up to about a #12 with it. Here is what they look like. I have the rail pushed into one of the frog point grooves further than normal to show how they work. Even though this is a #8 point former, we can get our #10 out of it by sliding the rail a bit further out than normal. All this does is take off more rail, but it won't matter, since we'll be filling the area between the frog points up with solder. In this pic, I have the rail out a bit further and have started to file it down. After filing it down smooth, this is what we have. Note that the rail is now "cut in half". continued in next post... -Mike
With the rail how it is now, we still have some of the head and web of the rail sticking out on the opposite side. This is one extra step I take to get the frog point as "pointy" as I can. We'll take and run the file over the web and head of the rail at the very end a little bit to make a super fine point. With the file at a slight angle, we'll file off quite a bit of the head and web of the rail towards the front, and feather it back to normal towards the rear. This area only needs to be about 3/16" wide. Here is a pic of the filed area. Now that both sides are filed down, I take my Xacto blade and run it back and fourth around the whole area to get rid of the small burrs of rail still attached. You might also have to straighten the rail out a little, since the Point Former tends to put a bend in it. Here is the complete filed down rail end. The Fast Tracks filed side is on the left, the small angled side is on the right. Note how skinny and "pointy" the rail is now. Now we'll take another piece of rail and make the other side of the frog point, doing the same things outlined here. Next up is spiking the frog points into place and filling the area between them with solder. -Mike
Now that the ends of both frog point rails are filed down, we'll need to cut them to length. If you don't have any track past the turnout permanently put down then skip these steps, since it won't matter where then rails get cut at. Since we've filed down a bit more of the rail ends to get them super pointy, they will stick out a bit further than where we marked the fog point at on the ties. For these next steps, you can start with either side. Take the rail in one hand and hold it on top of and in a straight line with the flex track rail on the "fat" side of the turnout. Take the trucks/wheels with the other hand and jump back and fourth between sides until the end of the rail is centered in the wheel treads. Then mark where to cut Now you can lay the rail back in place and recheck with the trucks if wanted. continued in next post... -Mike
Now that one rail is cut, we'll cut the other rail. Take the track gauge and set it in place on the rail that was previously cut out. Take the other rail and line up the filed down pointy side with the first rail, then mark and cut. With both rails cut out, we'll take and set both track gauges on them to make sure everything lines up. Also check the points with the truck/wheels to make sure they are in the correct position. If everything lines up good, then move one rail out of the way and start spiking the other rail. NOTE: make a mental note or mark on the ties where the frog rails get far enough apart to be able to put spikes between them without the rails getting out of alignment. The bigger the turnout, the further back this is. ONLY use a few spikes for the time being, since we might need to adjust the rails once they are soldered together. It also doesn't matter which ties you spike into, since this whole area will be spiked because we won't want it moving. Next up is filling the middle of the frog with solder -Mike
Now we'll take and fill in the the area between the frog points with solder. I use a cheap pencil style soldering iron for all my turnouts. Take and sit the iron a little ways up from the ends, and add solder into the gap. It won't take much solder to fill it in. With the solder still hot, take your pliers and squeeze the points together. You might have to take the iron and move it up to this area if the solder cools on you. Once the ends are squeezed together, remove the iron and keep the ends squeezed until the solder cools. We want to keep the points closed together as tight as possible. Once everything cools, take the file and smooth out the top of the rails and the edges of the points. continued in next post.... -Mike
Take your truck/wheels and roll them over the soldered area to make sure the top and edges of the rail are smoothed out. File any high spots if necessary. Once more, check the frog points with the trucks to make sure it's centered in the turnout, and then go and spike in the rest of the rails. NOTE: Leave 3 tie lengths between the point end and the first spikes. Here is the turnout so far. Next up is the switch points and closure rails. -Mike
Although previously I could never forsee me ever making my own turnouts... I have been following this thread with great interest, fascination, and in total awe and admiration of the skills you possess. Great pictorial 'How To"...^5 Maybe there is hope for the rest of us yet. .
Your work is inspiring and the pictorial is of top quality. Your series of installments leave me anxious to see the next part! I hope we can sticky this post for those who would like to learn this technique. Top quality and great craftsmanship. Thank you for taking the time to do this how-to.
Sorry for my ignorance, but isn't there a difference between the two rails that make up the point? ie, one is filed on one side, and the other is filed on the opposite side? I'm just confused as to how you use the point former to make the two opposite rails? Thanks again for a great, inspiring how-to. Best, Ryebot.
You're correct, they are mirror image, and the point former tool has one slot for each direction, on opposite sides of the tool
Thanks for the comments guys, I really appreciate them! I hope my wording is understandable to everyone. I've been doing my own turnouts for so long now that when I write this stuff, I end up skipping something important and have to erase what I wrote and reword it to include everything I've done in the pictures. So if something is not clear, then just ask me questions as I'm more than happy to answer them, no matter how many you have! Ryebot, as J.B. stated, the Fast Tracks point former tool has grooves for both sides of the frog. The picture I showed of the tool with the rail sticking out is just one side. In fact, the point former tool has grooves for both sides of the frog points and both sides of the closure rail points. I'll be using the Point Former tool again in the next few posts when I put in the closure rails. Thanks again everyone! -Mike
Ok, with the Frog points done, we can scratch one of the hardest parts off the list. Next we'll get into the closure rails and start another hard part. I usually start with the straight route's closure rail, since it's the easier one to put in. Grab a piece of rail and lay it in between the stock rails, with one side even with the recessed area in the stock rail. At the frog end, we'll take and mark the rail 3 ties in from the frog point end. With the rail marked, take and cut it and then slide it into the correct groove of the Fast Tracks Point Former, remembering to slide it further out than normal. (in this picture you can see the groove for the frog point that was used previously) File the rail down, take it out and using the Xacto blade, run it back and fourth around the filed area to get rid of any burrs on the rail. Again, run your fingers around the filed are to make sure it's nice and smooth. You might also have to straighten the rail back out some since the point former tends to put a slight bend in it. continued in next post... -Mike
