Turnout construction

[66c]

Hi everyone

I have just ( a couple of hours ago! ) taken delivery of some turnout kits and track so that they can be evaluated for a new club project.

After getting out my magnifier ( currently working on O gauge stuff ) I have a couple of observations/suggestions to make.

Attaching a wire to the casting for the frog - as there are already some holes in the turnout base could another be added to accommodate the wire to the frog?

Friction in the tie bar movement - I was wondering about the most appropriate lubricant to use to ease movement of the tie bar.  I don't think an oil type lubricant would be a good idea as it would inevitably attract dust and create a gunge that would probably be worse than no lubrication.  I have used Kadee couplers in 4mm scale and Kadee market a "dry" lubricant for them.  Being a skinflint I opted for another readily available alternative - pencil lead - as this is mostly graphite it provides a measure of lubrication.

Any comments/observations on these ideas?

Regards.

[Wayne Kinney]

Hi Bill,

Welcome to the forum!

A hole can certainly be made as a milling op, a small hole can also be made by cutting the webbing with a modeling knife.

I myself like to run the wires between the timbers and off to the side. Unless building in situ, having a dropper wire running out a hole on the bottom means that you can not lay the base flat on your work top while building the turnout.

I wouldn't worry about lubricating the tie bar myself, a slow action switch machine should be able to throw the tie bar without problems.

[robert]

Hi pic of work so far
If I can sort site and files I will upload a few more but a real pain having to resize to 1MB as pics are all 1.25MB - it is easier to build points !
Robert

[robert]

Well three points made and all seem ok, just used paint pen to "rust rails - will use black perm marker on frog castings.
Due to only 1MB file size not able to load more pictures. RM web is 3MB and N formum is 2MB ( I think) and will thus take pictures from my mini camera with out wasting time resizing- sorry life too short - look for finetrax on RM web in small forum suppliers
Robert.