My New York & Atlantic layout

[Sumpter250]

I found two pictures of #270, the first in the original NY&A paint scheme:
   
and this appears to be a newer paint scheme:
   
I also have one of MP15AC #159. This also appears to be in a newer paint scheme, and there's a GP38 #27X ( looks like 270 I don't have the tools, or skill to use them, but, with enlargement,and some "adjustments" it looks like 270 in the newer scheme ) behind it:
   

[cnw1961]

Thanks again for the pics. The year I am modeling is 2006. That allows me to run my Geeps in the old green and white paintscheme alongside the MP15AC in the new green and black livery. #151 was painted in summer 2006 in the new scheme, so I won’t even have to weather it, just a little dust to make it look prototypical.

[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.

[Harry]

Kurt , great idea

[P5se Camelback]

Creative Problem Solving!
... at it's Best!

I love it when the brain really buckles down and does some work ... and the results are this creative, this well-thought-out, shows such a thoughful economy in the choice of materials, has reduced the solution to its most simple terms, and can still exhibit beauty in its mechanics!!

If this was a solution to a design problem in my "Introduction to Industrial Design - ID 101" class, it would get an "A"!!!

And the visual presentation for the class meeting critique ... another "A"!

[Steamtrains]

Great idea and "bashing"..!!
Just a question....How is the control wire held in place..??

[SP1]

Kurt,
that is is the most unusual switch lever I have ever seen. I must confess the solution with the ball is pure genius!
But I must ask, how do you switch the frog's polarity?

[cnw1961]

Thank you, but to be honest, as stated above I can’t take credit for the idea. I only adapted and simplyfied the design of the Fast Track BullFrog turnout control and due to building it using metal instead of wood, I could reduce the number of parts needed.

Gus, the wire does not need to be held in place. Due to being led through the hole in the bracket, the end of the wire that sticks in the lever is canting when you are trying to pull it out, thus creating enough tension to keep it from coming loose.

Jens, as I said above, I don’t power my frogs. I hardly ever have an engine stalling on a dead frog, but I often had the system shorting out when running into a misaligned turnout when I used electric switch machines and powerd frogs on a previous layout. The BullFrog has a micro switch that is activated by the lever. Should be possible to do something similar with my turnout control.

[SP1]

Jens, as I said above, I don’t power my frogs.

Oh well, I missed that. I was too fascinated about the pictures, I guess...

[shortliner]

Can I suggest that the easiest method to power the frog would be to use one of these <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudedude/3633464329/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudedude/3633464329/</a><!-- m -->
cutting it apart, and using the metal bit and screws to attach to the "spoke" and cause it to press down the arm of a microswitch mounted separately beside it, as the spoke moves in and out. That would mean that you don't need to remove/replace the complete unit if an adjustment/repair needs to be made.
Best
Jack

[tetters]

I think you might find that you will need to power the frog on your hand laid turnouts. You already know the type of engines I run and I could never get them to run through an un-powered frog. Once one of the trucks hit the dead frog, the loco stalls.

You homemade switch machine though is a brilliant piece of work though, even if you did copy the basic fundamental design.

I say this as I'm not a big fan of wiring either.

[P5se Camelback]

Thank you, but to be honest, as stated above I can’t take credit for the idea. I only adapted and simplyfied the design of the Fast Track BullFrog turnout control and due to building it using metal instead of wood, I could reduce the number of parts needed.

Kurt ... There are no totally new ideas ... only new applications of existing principles. That's where the creativity comes in.

By switching materials and thereby reducing the number of parts involved, you have improved on the concept and any Corporate Director of Engineering or Director of Purchasing would be pleased, but the Director of Manufacturing would be the happiest, as he would have fewer parts to maintain in stock. And fewer parts means less assembly time which translates to increased output. You are the Corporate Hero and will receive a small stipend of appreciation for your efforts and possibly a plaque for your office wall (at least that's how it used to happen when I was still in the corporate world, back in the last century! )

Innovation coupled with economy of materials ... that combo wins the prize every time. I once redesigned a small hand-held data entry device enclosure to replace a dozen screws and several custom brackets by designing the "fasteners" into the part itself - the circuit board and small power switch snapped into one half, the micro-motion keypad and digital display snapped into the other half and the two halves snapped together ... no fasteners were presented to the end user ... you had to know just where to squeeze to get it to open. The techs loved it!

The injection molding tooling cost a bit more at the outset (due to a decrease in tolerances from +/- 0.05 to +/- 0.005 to achieve a close fit between the molded-in snapping detents) but the reduction of the extra parts more than made up for the initial increased cost of tooling and when it was all said and done, over the entire life of the product, profits were increased merely by reducing the cost of parts and the cost to manufacture! Of course, that was my goal from the very beginning ... I had looked at all those screws and at the cost of buying the custom brackets from some vendor and at the people on the assembly line and thought ... "There are pennies to be saved here!" [My first wall plaque plus a few hundred dollars stipend ... cool!]

... so ... Kudos to you, Young Master Kurt!

A job well done!

[cnw1961]

Can I suggest that the easiest method to power the frog would be to use one of these <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudedude/3633464329/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudedude/3633464329/</a><!-- m -->
cutting it apart, and using the metal bit and screws to attach to the "spoke" and cause it to press down the arm of a microswitch mounted separately beside it, as the spoke moves in and out. That would mean that you don't need to remove/replace the complete unit if an adjustment/repair needs to be made.

Good idea! Sounds like the easiest way to connect a switch. I will keep that in mind in case that powering the frogs proves necessary.

I think you might find that you will need to power the frog on your hand laid turnouts. You already know the type of engines I run and I could never get them to run through an un-powered frog. Once one of the trucks hit the dead frog, the loco stalls.

Tetters, your train crews seem to be a lazy bunch! Taking every opprtunity to stop the train and have a break .

Seriously, I did not have powered frogs on my last layout and never encountered any problems. I test ran my engines on my new turnouts and even my lightest and shortest loco (DCC and sound) made it over the frogs without any problems. I did not build the turnouts exactly as shown in the Fast Tracks drawings. I changed the positions of the gaps that Isolate the frog to keep the dead area as short as possible ... but I hear you! As a precaution I will solder wires to the frogs when I lay track so that I can easily power the frogs if that should be necessary.

BiL, you are right, there are no totally new ideas ... so thank you for your very kind words!

[tetters]

Tetters, your train crews seem to be a lazy bunch! Taking every opprtunity to stop the train and have a break .

Dammit! I knew those little buggers were pulling my leg. That explains the laughter I heard as I struggled underneath the layout wiring up the frogs!

Or maybe it was just my medication was wearing off? hock:

[MountainMan]

Nice job, in the true spirit of using what you have handy to overcome a modeling challenge!