… that I will build my own turnouts from now on. Your fine trackwork inspired me so much that I had to try it someday. Now that I am planning some major changes on my layout, I need some left hand turnouts, but as so often, the Micro Engineering TO’s I need are not available. I don’t want to wait for ages, so I took a Fast Tracks track template, printed it out and started to build my first turnout … and I must say that I am really delighted how it turned out . Because I had to use what I had at hand, the PC ties were cut from a piece of PC board and the rails were taken from old and used ME code 70 flex track. Cutting the ties was quite boring, so today I ordered PC ties and wooden ties from Fast Tracks for my next attempts. Won’t do a double crossover any time soon , but the next one I am going to build will be a beautiful, long #10 Y.

You guys are killing me.

And see ... it wasn't all that tough ...


Hand laying used to be the thing that I started thinking about part way through dinner after a particularly difficult day of doing battle mentally (and verbally) with the M.E.'s when I worked at Sperry Corp.! It was my "relaxation therapy" that would bring me to a state of calm that would alllow me to actually go upstairs, crawl in between the electric sheet, the top sheet and the blanket and nod off (with someone to snuggle up against.)

Hand laying track was great fun and I got to the point where I just built them when I got to them, right there on the homosote roadbed, right on top of a Xeroxed copy of a turnout template from a book I have on track ... dere's nuttin' like it, Bubba!

Whats the advantage to hand laid track? other than looks and bragging rights?

I don't know for sure, but the points on handlaid turn-outs look much superior to my Atlas hinged points.

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Whats the advantage to hand laid track? other than looks and bragging rights?

Perhaps cost. Well, the turnouts are cheaper, but once you buy the ties and rail you aren't saving that much over a piece of flex track. In my case, I wanted HOn3 and dual-gauge track, and building my own was significantly cheaper than prefab track. You can also build turnouts to any spec you like, rather than having to deal with prefab geometries. As for looks - that's a matter of opinion. I think properly weathered micro-engineering track looks better than most handlaid. Sure, one can buy all the track detailing components and make a pretty darned convincing stretch of handlaid track - but the cost of all those details adds up to the point that prefab track becomes cheaper.

So what is the real advantage? I think bragging rights and self satisfaction has a lot to do with it.

When I said "looks superior" I wasn't talking about the actual look. I was talking about the mechanical function and longevity.

For me handlaid track was something I had always wanted top try and was something I was going to do some of no matter what. Even if it was just a small switching layout. I have always liked the look of it and how it seems to flow nicer than RTR track. Another reason I decided on handlaid track was the fact if one hand builds a turnout it can be built to work better than a RTR turnout. I have found that if you take an NMRA gauge to a RTR turnought most are off some where. I have a dozen ME #6 code 83 turnouts and if I roll a Proto or Kadee freight car truck through them the wheels drop a little at the frog and make a little bump noise. Two of my ME turnouts have frog points that are actually higher than the rail around them. The trucks bump up as they roll onto the frog which leads to a derailment some times.
I bought one of the Fast Tracks code 83 #6 HO scale turnout jigs a few years back and when rolling a truck through one of the turnouts made in the jig the truck rolls smoothly through the turnout and the only noise is the sound of the metal wheels on the rail. No bumping or dropping at the frog. I have also built a couple just using a Fast Tracks template ( no jig ) and they turned out as good as a jig built turnout. Now I am not saying RTR turnouts are junk. Lots of people use them with no problems and so have I. Handlaid turnouts are bit superior only because the builder can make sure the gauging is spot on as it is built. That is 50% of the reason I went with the Fast Tracks turnout jig. The other 50% was cost. If I use seperate wood ties instead of the Fast Tracks laser cut ties my cost per turnout is a fair bit cheaper that a good RTR turnout. Yes there is less detail but I can live with that trade off if I am going to get smooth preformance and save a little bit of money to use for other goodies. I also get to have fun building my own turnouts.


Wayne Reid

The NachoMan distilled it to 150 Proof!

Yeah, it looks O.K. and sure you can build a 7 3/4 left hand turnout (or in my case, whatever it is ... I've never figured it out what any of them are) if you want to. The points definitly look better than the hinged ones with the rivet in the middle. I still think it's cheaper to buy i huge bag of wood ties, a bag of a couple thousand spikes and a tube of 99 feet of rail and then spike down and build whatever it takes to get from here to there. I know you do get more "fun for the buck" as you can't lay the track for the whole railroad in two nights like you can with pre-fab flex track it you really get the Coolies humpin'!

But what it really all boils down to ...

... is that moment when you stand back a look at it and know that it's there because you built it there ... and then watch a string of '30's vintage 40-footers snake its way through a "something-larger-than-#6-crossover" and hear a small voice inside your head say ...

Gary S Wrote:You guys are killing me.

You're not alone, Gary.

I like building turnouts too. Some time ago a friend wanted wanted a code 70 Y-style turnout for his module. Main track radius 2922 mm, diverging track also 2922 mm. And he wanted a better throw bar, not the usual PC board tie. I've made an AutoCAD drawing, prepared the ties, and 4 1/2 hours later...





Wolfgang

P5se Camelback Wrote:And see ... it wasn't all that tough ...

No, it was not tough at all. In fact it was much easier than I had expected and because I like soldering things together, it was fun, too. The main reasons for building my own turnouts are availability and not being dependent on the few geometries of prefab TOs offered. Especially here in Germany it is not always that easy to get the turnouts I need without having to wait for weeks. Turnouts are expensive, so I just buy what I need for a specific layout, but when I change my plans or if a TO gets damaged, I am in trouble. I can always get the materials I need to build a TO. Even if I don’t have already cut PC ties and wooden ties at hand, I can get a piece of PC board and some strip wood. That is all I need.

Costs are another reason. A ME #6 code 70 TO costs $20.95 plus shipping (shipping rates are always a big factor when parts have to be shipped to Germany). If I use ME rails and Fast Tracks ties, a hand build TO costs about $5.

I am not sure about looks. On the one hand, (some) prefab turnouts show more details, but on the other hand most have an ugly cast metal or even plastic frog and the points are hinged. In this respect hand build turnouts look better and exactly like the real thing.

But most of all, it is fun. I am really looking forward to building a #10 Y.

with Gary....Having been blessed with 5 thumbs in each hand I can only imagine what a handlaid turnout would turn out like after I got through with it... :cry: I recall "helping" my ol' man build several turnouts back in the days when TV was in B&W...so I figured it was an easy task. Not so...I tried my hand at building a simple 90 deg. crossing and ended up with a jumble of track and solder splattered all over the roadbed.Just looking at Wolfgang's DUAL GAUGE Y, and Tt's double crossover makes my skin crawl.

So I stick with off-the-shelf turnouts (Peco) which are extremely reliable and look as close to the real thing as you can get...

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Whats the advantage to hand laid track? other than looks and bragging rights?

That question is a good one, and like so many little things about the hobby, and big ones, it depends entirely on the orientation of the person doing it. If you disdain or simply loath hand laying track, it really should only be done out of dire necessity. Or a weird sense of duty.

On the other hand, at least one gentleman's needs were handily met by hand laying a turnout, and another said it was stress-busting for him at the end of a work day. If that is all laying track by hand offers any one of us, should that not be sufficient?

Mechanically, and speaking only with experience and knowledge of the Fast Tracks version of turnouts, the tolerances and construction are such that standard RP-25 conforming wheels run through the guards and frogs as if they were solid rail anywhere else on the system that is not a frog. They are that smooth. You don't have idlers on leading trucks and the smaller freight wheels dipping and jumping as they do on so many plastic and filled frogs in commercial turnouts. For some of us, it is worth the effort to get that benefit. Also worth it for me was learning that I could build my own turnouts for custom applications. Even though my jig was for a standard Code 100 #8, I learned that I could construct turnouts of various kinds due to transferability of techniques. And I did just that...twice on my current layout.

Crandell

Steamtrains Wrote: ... I recall "helping" my ol' man build several turnouts back in the days when TV was in B&W...so I figured it was an easy task. Not so...I tried my hand at building a simple 90 deg. crossing and ended up with a jumble of track and solder splattered all over the roadbed. ...

Geez, Gus! That's like deciding you want to learn to ride a bicycle and buying a unicycle ... yeah, it has a rubber tire with air in it and you pedal it, but that's where the similarity ends!

I've been hand laying turnouts since 1985 or '86 and never had need of a crossing. But when I was building my version of "Third Street Industrial" and it called for a 30° crossing, I bought one!

Turnouts involve long sweeping pieces of rail, and soldering locations are separated from each other by a couple inches or more. A crossing involves many very short pieces of rail with the joints to be soldered only fractions of an inch apart. There are many crucial tolerance locations within extremely close proximity to each other! Crossings are not what I would suggest as a beginning track layer's project.

I have no problem laying a turnout by hand right there on the Homosote roadbed when I get to it, letting the stock rails flow thru it ... but a crossing? Nah! I'd have that thing fixtured up to within an inch of its tiny little life and be doing all the solder work on the workbench, installing it after everything had cooled down!

You might try giving a turnout another shot ... but leave the crossings for Micro-Engineering or get a BK Enterprises kit (do they even still exist?)

I would love to try it but I only have one hand that works properly. How do I get drawings and directions if I decide to try it? One thing I have considered is to remove the outside rails and ad a flex rail in order to get the joint's away from the switch. Which I might try the next time I am laying track.