Does anyone know of a company that makes curved turnouts for HOn3? I’m in the layout design stage and have realized that I will need such an item for the entrance to a yard. I don’t have any desire to learn turnout construction and do it myself! Any help would be greatly appreciated. Measurements would be great if you have them available!
Jim
STUPID QUESTION!!!
If you
what in the dickens have you been doing in the
that has led you to design a layout that requires a “curved HOn3 switch at the entrance to a yard”???
I saw a peanut stand’
I heard a rubber band;
I saw a needle that winked its eye.
But I think I will have seen everything;
If I see a curved HOn3 switch.
Wrong. Stupid ANSWER.
Just who put you in charge of deciding when people should ask questions? Should he ask before he even starts designing? Then how will he know what questions to ask?
jfbargmann, please accept my apologies on behalf of this rude jerk. There are actually very few of them on this forum. Your bad luck, I guess, to find one so quickly.
Usually the first place I’d recommend for you to look is the Walthers catalog at:
Select SHOP, then you’ll get a search form. Select Track & Accessories, HOn3, and type “curved” in the keywords section. You won’t find much, I’m afraid.
If you’re not familiar with Walthers, they’re a major manufacturer and also a major distributor of train stuff. And their numbering system (3 digits for make, plus a dash, then the manufacturer’s item number) is used by many retailers, both hobby shops and online.
They don’t carry absolutely everything, though, so there might be another source. Horizon hobbies http://www.horizonhobby.com/ is another (but I don’t find any HOn3 track there).
Hi Jim
Sorry about the troll. I thought these forums where pretty good.
Ok, here are some possibilities I found:
www.railwayeng.com this one has Hon3 #8 curved
www.maine2footquarterly.com curved turnouts coming
I have made two way and three way stub turnouts with code 100 HO track so it is not too difficult. Just takes planning.
Another suggestion is to do some searching using google or yahoo. There are many answers on the 'Net that I have seen the past few years but not into Hon3, so I do not remember the links.
Yahoo has some narrow gauge groups that are faily well spam and troll free.
Cheers
Rich
I’m not so sure RT deserves unending bags of coal for his post…
If you read his past posts or his signature, you will recognize that he has a real sense of humor (and a valid point of view) most of the time…
Jim, my initial reaction to your post goes along similar lines:
- What are you doing planning an HOn3 layout without a good idea of what is/isn’t available on the market when you are not willing to fabricate anything yourself? Don’t you know it’s not really an RTR scale/gauge?
Then I thought twice about saying anything. I’ve been involved with HOn3 for less than 2 years myself. But it’s pretty easy to pick up on the limited availability of a wide variety of track products and non-brass locomotives. That said, things are changing fast in HOn3. MicroTrains has produced a steady stream of RTR cars. Blackstone RTR K-27 locos, available with/without DCC and sound, are arriving. Perhaps Horizon can be convinced to re-run the Roundhouse HOn3 locomotives one of these days.
On the track side, Rich summed it up well for curved turnouts. Maine 2foot Quarterly has started selling prefab hand-made HOn3 turnouts to standard sizes for pretty low prices. Railway Engineering has been selling quality custom HOn3 turnouts for years. Shinohara makes quite a variety of HOn3 track in code 70 (but no curved turnouts that I know of). Micro Engineering makes HOn3 flex track in code 70, 55, and 40. ME also offers a #6 code 55 turnout.
But because HOn3 has in the past tended more to the craftsman kit side of the ledger than HO, most HOn3 modelers are not afraid to lay their own turnouts when the need arises. It really is not that difficult, even for me. If you can solder, and can apply fine details to an HOn3 car, you can make a functional HOn3 turnout in a couple of evenings.
just my thoughts
Once you master the rather simple skills involved (filing rail to shape and soldering) assembling a curved turnout (or a puzzle palace of double slip switches) is no big thing. It just takes time, patience, a willingness to trash parts that deviate from requirements - and a couple of good track gauges. A steady hand with spiking pliers is also useful.
If this arthritic old geezer (I can call myself that, but I wouldn’t suggest that anyone else do so!) can do it, just about anyone can.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on hand-laid specialwork)
Hey ummmm…poteet, did sombody pee in your Cheerios???
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
You might try these folks
http://www.maine2footquarterly.com/turnout.htm
Scroll towards the bottom and you will see their HOn3 offerings. They do list that they will have an HOn3 curved turnout coming soon. Contact them because they may already have them available and just not have updated their site yet…or they may be able to custom make one (or more) for you.
Good Luck!
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
Until recent years, I’ve laid many an HOn3 turnouts using BK Enterprises turnout kits. They’ll custom build you most any turnout. I’ve laid their custom-ordered dual guage crossings as well as their curved turnouts. Just make an accurate drawing showing the centerlines of the tracks and specify the rail code size. They’ll do it, for a price. If you’re only going to order a custom turnout or two, it shouldn’t hit your pocket book too hard. If you (1) use plenty of three-point track gauges, (2) place spikes at the right places (making sure the fixed rails near the points and the frogs are solid and don’t spike the closure rails-the pointy ones-anywhere near the points), (3) make sure the points are sharp and close tight, and (4) there are no vertical grade changes or dips or rises in the rails, you should end up with a reliable turnout.
Mark Pierce