My New York & Atlantic layout

[Harry]

Kurt,

why do not you do this?

http://www.moba-trickkiste.de/images/sto...che_04.jpg

http://www.moba-trickkiste.de/images/sto...che_05.gif

[cnw1961]

Harry, I don’t want to power my frogs if I can avoid it, so I don’t need switches. I was thinking about the method that is shown in the pics from MoBa when I was looking for the best way to build a manual turnout control, but as you can see in the animated pic, the movement of the control wire is rather resricted by the small switch. It is suitable for a n-scale turnout (like in the pic), but it won’t throw a hand build HO turnout and hold the points firmly to the stock rails. And apart from that, I like my turnout control better, because they are absolutely bullet proof and they are more easily mounted and adjusted. And even building them does not take too long. Today I built 8 turnout controls in just 3 hours.

[Sumpter250]

Quick to build. Simple construction. Spring-loaded detent to lock the "throw" in position. And.......recycled parts !!

Very nicely done !!

[dave_long]

Kurt,

why do not you do this?

http://www.moba-trickkiste.de/images/sto...che_04.jpg

http://www.moba-trickkiste.de/images/sto...che_05.gif

That is a little hampered I would have thought that using a microswitch would be a little more suitable for the task, then the movement of the armature can be longer making it suitable for many gauges.
Good work Kurt have been following your threads for some timenow.

Rgds
Dave

[cnw1961]

Quick to build. Simple construction. Spring-loaded detent to lock the "throw" in position. And.......recycled parts !!

Pete, I can’t remember why I did not throw the balls from the bearing away when the hub failed two or three years ago ... and I found 9 balls now, exactly the number of I needed. I knew all this cycling would pay off some day :mrgreen: .

Dave, welcome aboard .

I agree that a microswitch would be more suitable for the task and I think I will go that road if it proves necessary.

After waiting for more than a month now for my order of ties to arrive, I am sick of waiting any longer. So I got some thin square stock today and started to cut ties for my turnouts. I just finished the first two turnouts. Cutting ties and glueing them down is very tedious and doing the first two turnouts convinced me never to handlay track (apart from turnouts) ... flextrack has its merits . Anyway, feels good to make some progress again. If I am lucky, I will finish laying track and wiring this weekend and get my trains running again ... wooohoo :mrgreen:

[MrBill]

Hey Kurt. Nice ISL you have going here. I commend you for handlaying that track anyway! Not the simplest proposition, but it looks like the bulk of it's complete. It's always nice to get back to running. Looking forward to updates. -bill

[Paulman]

It's nice to see you back in action, Kurt!

[tetters]

Cutting ties and glueing them down is very tedious and doing the first two turnouts convinced me never to handlay track (apart from turnouts) ...

Suck it up cupcake!

Looks great man!

[cnw1961]

Thanks, guys.

Tetters, what is it that gets you through all your hand laying? A special meditation or a special medication? No matter what it is, I need it!

[tetters]

Tetters, what is it that gets you through all your hand laying? A special meditation or a special medication? No matter what it is, I need it!

No meds here Kurt. I do however, have a good friend named Jack Daniels who sometimes comes into the layout room to help out. Except whenever that cheeky bugger comes around I don't seem to get much done. The Choo Choo sound effect noises coming out my mouth seem to get louder and sound better though... WHOO WHOO!!! :?

[lears2005]

Where do you order your ties from that it takes that long to get them. I order mine and have them with in 2 weeks.

[P5se Camelback]

Where do you order your ties from that it takes that long to get them. I order mine and have them with in 2 weeks.

Kurt's have to cross the pond ... to Germany ... it takes a little longer. 8-)

[lears2005]

O ok that makes for a good reason did not know you where on the other side of the big pond.

[cnw1961]

Lears2005, biL is right, shipping to Germany takes abit longer, butthis time it took even longer than usual ... and you know what? Yesterday, just one day after I was so fed upw with waiting that I bought some stripwood to cut my ties from, the package was delivered .... but now that I had already started to finish my turnouts, I did not want to use two different kind of ties, so that I don’t need the Fast Tracks ties anymore ... well, at least not for this layout. Anyway, I made some real substantial progress this weekend . It may not show in this pic, but MY TRAINS ARE RUNNING AGAIN.




All the turnouts on the main part of the layout are finished, all trackwork is completed, everything is wired and the turnout controls are installed. Only laying track on the extension remains to be done.



I already ran all my engines and some cars several times through all the turnouts – no derailments, no stalling engines on my dead frogs (sorry Tetters, I hate to disappoint you ), no problems whatsoever. These handbuilt turnouts are pretty convincing. The same applies to the turnout controls, they are doing their job flawlessly. So this weekend was quite successful.

[P5se Camelback]

Kurt, as always, you amaze and inspire me. In anticipation of powering turnouts on my "just-now-starting-to-rise-up-from-the-floor" layout (there has been blue painter's tape delineating its boudaries on the terrazzo floor for a couple months now) with almost two dozen turnouts I took advantage of a "reduced-price deal" and bought a box of a dozen Tortii. I had used Switchmasters' machines back in the '80's (a.k.a. Hankscraft Display Motors, which needed micro switches added ) but thought I'd join the 21st Century and use the Tortoise like the rest of the modern day world.

But I've gotta tell you, you impressed the Hades out of me with your manual jobbies! I just might get together PM's with you on those puppies!

On the topic of hand laying, I found it to be a calming, soothing activity after a day of doing battle against a half-dozen mechanical engineers back when I was working for Sperry (Univac) ... I'd lose track of time and all of a sudden realize it was two AM! I got to where I could "fly" going down a "straight" piece of track! As I recall, I was getting up around 6-8 ft/hr. (four spikes - every tie) Turnouts, well, maybe 1 1/2 a night (max) ... they take more time when you build them as you get to them (with no gigs) letting the stock rails run through, but they are SOOoooooo SMOOooooth in transition ... I wouldn't have it any other way! [I think I learned about hand-laying by reading a Tony Koester article from the late '70's.]

Keep up the good work, there, Bubba! I love watching your progress!