I'm using electrical slide switches to move the points and change polarity of the frogs as suggested to me by Rick Brodzinsky. The travel of my slide switches is greater than that of my RR switches. I am using .041 stainless steel wire. My question is how close in actual travel do these two types of switches need to be? I can make their travel closer by the size of my hole in the slide switch, but there is not enough there to do it all. I could also glue some travel stops on the slide switches which would help (being careful to stay in range for the slide switch function). Should I use the difference in travel to keep the point tight against the rail and if so, what is good and what is excessive? I have read of putting a few zig zags in the wire for a spring effect, but I really don't have a lot of room. Thanks for any thoughts. Jim
I do the same thing and have been for many years on several layouts. How much force the movement of the slide switch places on the points can be affected by several factors. Wire size I believe the wire I have used is .030 steel wire. Slide switches come in several sizes and switch travel may vary between size. Thickness of deck / distance between switch and points. Type of turnout, hole in Peco throw bar is big compared to some others. Best thing is to try it out on one spot and make adjustments at needed. Once you get past the first one you will have a pattern for how to do more. I recently installed 6 of these saved from an old layout on a new one. Here is a link to my blog post on these. http://palisadecanyonrr.blogspot.com/2017/11/hand-throws-for-turnouts.html
I use Radio Shack slide switchers for this, usually with .032 music wire. For deeper holes, usually at a splice plate, I add a piece of brass tubing over most of the .032 wire for reinforcement. Just a straight run; no zigzags. The switches don't make enough pressure to be concerned about over doing it, so I wouldn't mess with stops on them. Also, stops may stop the electric circuit from completing. Overall they work fine. Michael Pennie
