Stiff operating turnouts

[nachoman]

It's almost guaranteed you will stick a turnout or two while ballasting. My course of action is to first take a hobby knife and try and mechanically scrape away any glue or ballast near the throwbar. Next, vacuum up any loose debris near the turnout. If the switch is still sticking, then I try soaking the moving parts using alcohol applied with a small paintbrush or eyedropper. Once it is loosened up with alcohol, throwh the turnout back and forth a few times, and then again once or twice every 5-10 minutes for about an hour so that the dissolved glue will not simply reseal the mechanism. What kind of glue did you use? If you used white glue, you can substitute the alcohol with warm water. Matte medium will need alcohol to re-dissolve, and wil take much longer. Just don't use laquer thinner or acetone to free the stuck parts, because those chemicals dissolve plastic.