My New York & Atlantic layout

[cnw1961]

It will not win a beauty contest, that is for sure, but it works like a charm!



For my new layout I was looking for some reliable, inexpensive manual turnout controls. If I wanted to power my frogs, I would use Gary’s method for building a turnout control, but I want to keep wiring to the absolute minimum (I hate wiring) and I never had any problems with stalling engines on dead frogs. So I looked around for ways to build manual turnout controls and the design I liked most was Fast Tracks’ BullFrog. They have a locking mechanism that is made of a ball from a ball bearing and a coiled spring that pops into holes in the lever that is moving the control wire and so locks the machine in place. Good idea, simple and reliable. The downside for me is the price, the fact that I would have to wait for three or four weeks to get them if I ordered them and that assembling the BullFrogs takes almost as long as building my own.

So I looked what I had at hand and came up with all the materials I need to build my turnout controls: .032" piano wire, a 1/8" thick aluminum profile to cut the levers from, lots of small metal brackets (I can’t even remember what I bought them for), balls from the bearings of an old bicycle hub and some old spokes that will be used as control rods. I’ll only have to buy some wooden knobs.

This pic shows all the parts my turnout control is made of.



I started by drilling holes for the conrol wire, the ball bearing and the screw that holds the lever.



Next I cut the lever from the aluminum profile and drilled holes for the screw, the control wire and the spoke (control rod).



To determine the positions of the two holes that are needed for the ball to pop in and lock the lever, I screwed the lever to the bracket, added the control wire and fixed the assembly to my layout. Then I sticked the control wire into the hole in the throwbar of my turnout. I moved the lever to both sides until the points were firmly pressed against the stock rails. I marked these positions on the backside of the lever through the hole for the ball.

After drilling the holes into the lever for the ball to pop in (these holes are only about .040" smaller than the ball itself), I screwed the lever to the bracket again, tightening the screw so that the lever could just move freely. I used Loctite threadlocker to secure the nut.

To use a coiled spring like the BullFrog would have made construction more difficult, so I decided to make a spring from my .032" piano wire. I added a second spring because the .032" wire was a little weak and I did not have stronger wire at hand.