I have Shinohara 3-way turnout that I would like to re-use on My new Layout. I purchased the turnout over thirty (30) years. But now It was build up with crud so I placed it a pan of water and dawn dish soap to clean it. Well the turnout came out clean, looking like new. But one of the turnout throw bars cam loose at the point of the rails. A small strip of metal attached to plastic throw is used to connect the throw bar to the point rails. How can I re-attach the throw bar to the point rails? I would greatly appreciate any help provided. How can I re-attach the throw bar to the point rails?
I sold my only 3-way turnout but I assume they are constructed like the normal units? Some images would help. On the 2-way turnouts, it looks like the metal piece was soldered to the two point rails, and then it was attached to the brass contact strip and the plastic throw with a hollow rivet. You would have to repeat this process if you wanted it back as it was. You could probably use a piece of brass tubing to take the place of the hollow rivet. I have converted a lot of mine to selectively route power to the frog via the switch machine contacts, so I removed the rivet, the brass strip, and the plastic throw. I replaced them with a printed circuit tie with the copper separated between the two rails. Soldering the rails to a PC tie without having the copper lift off of the board takes some practice.
Chances are that 'good soak' put corrosion into the connection between the point rails and the stock rails. You'll want to check everything with a meter, and add jumper wires across those locations to get power back to the points, before you ever install that on a layout. Everything Shinohara was notoriously different for gauge, flange depth, etc. Note I didn't say 'bad', just 'different'. You'll want to thoroughly check it - but in the 'old days' the problem was that the flangeways weren't deep enough to clear some of the European stuff with huge flanges (Trix, Rapido). But they did have some cool stuff.
