Expensive tracklaying jigs

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I think we’re better off, when handlaying track, to not limit ourselves to somebody elses geometry.

If you can figure out that a commercial product does not obtain, then WHY use just some other commercial product? Get a cheap jewelers vice and a couple files and go for it. In my case I needed a trip to the Optometrist. But with the lighted/magnified headpieces available you can still build any turnout for about two bucks USD (2007). Build a few for kicks and then you will be a savant. Building track from ties and rail has a mystique it does not quite deserve. The only limit to trackwork is the equipment that must use it, and not the other way around. You can build a model of a Harlem River offline terminal literally using ten-inch curves and number three switches in HO. Not a main line, but extremely prototypical. And you can stick such track anywhere in industrial settings regardless of the mainline.

The big charm of handlaying track is the infinite geometry, not some company’s idea you need to solder them together yourself to a preset shape.

edited for spelling (right!)

2

ACY,

Looks like you have a duplicate thread running concurrently. You may want to erease the other one so that all the comments are located here. All you have to do is to go into the other thread, click the Xdelete button at the upper right corner of the text box, and follow the prompts.

Tom

3

The dupe was unintentional. The original obtains. Thanks for the word. Ric

4

Your welcome, Ric. Whenever it does happens, most of the time its unintentional. I just wanted to give you a heads up.

Tom

5

ACY:

There’s the ideal, and then there’s the practical, real world.

Regarding track, I started out handlaying the turnouts on my HO Siskiyou Line, which is a large home layout having 1200 feet of track and about 120 turnouts.

After a year of handlaying turnouts (and I had handlaid turnouts on 4 small previous layouts) on my large layout, I looked at how far I had gotten and was very disappointed at the slowness of my progress, so I opted to go with commercial turnouts on the rest of the layout for speed.

However, commercial turnouts all compromise the NMRA standards for turnouts, thinking the slop will make poorly guaged wheelsets track better … unfortunately, all this does is make the turnouts perform poorly with properly guaged wheelsets!

So the ideal for me with a larger layout would be a way to handlay turnouts fast. If something like the Fast Tracks turnout jigs had existed back in the beginning with my layout, I would have jumped at the chance to use them because they give you a a handlaid NMRA standard turnout in record time. When you are doing a large layout, doing things that save time make a big difference if you ever want to see your project reach a reasonable state of completion without taking decades.

The prototype does the same thing. Rarely does the prototype custom build turnouts on location. The prototype uses standard turnout parts to build turnouts, so if you use standard parts for most of your turnouts, you will be following the same practices the prototype follows. This will make your track geometry look more realistic, since that’s what the prototype does.

When doing a large project, there’s a saying: cost, time, quality … pick any two. At the expense of cost, Fast Tracks turnout jigs save time and give you a quality result. And if you have a lot of turnouts to build, the jigs also become more economical than commercial turnouts as well. I have no affiliation with Fast Tracks, I just use them as an example because I li

6

The most important thing the FastTracks jigs gave me was the guts to try handlaying a turnout. I don’t think I would have ever done it otherwise. And spread out over enough turnouts, they are not really that expensive, especially considering the time they can save.

There is nothing wrong, and a lot right with buiding without a jig, but I think there is a real place for both methods, and I wouldn’t belittle either approach.

7

Boy do I agree with you about FT’s jig giving you the guts to try handlying the turnouts. I just sent for one for that very reason. Now my question to you and Joe. . .have you ever tried puting the FT turnout on the Central Valley’s ties?

Tom Makofski

NorthEastern Wisconsin Free-mo

Total Membership of 2 and Growing!

tmak@new.rr.com

http://www.pbase.com/tmak2654952/my_work_bench

http://www.pbase.com/tmak2654952/galleries

8

[#ditto] When it became clear that my only salvation was an unanticipated curved wye #6, I had no choice but to build one. I had made several Fast Tracks turnouts by then, and there was no longer any mystery about it. So, measured, cut, filed, soldered, and darned if that little jewel doesn’t fit the bill neatly!

9

I’ve got my jig, but I haven’t built a turnout yet. You call it expensive, but it was half what my turnouts would have cost if I bought them and they will be bullet proof. I think that’s a fine deal. Any additional turnouts will be $3-4 each–when I expand my layout, this will be a huge savings.

I am all for labor saving devices. You can be a purist if you like. But I’d rather run trains on my layout just a little sooner.

10

Yes, and it doesn’t work. The Central Valley ties are in the wrong places which makes it impossible to just cut out a few ties in the CV turnout tie kit (to make way for the Fast Tracks PC ties) without ending up with a really ugly tie spacing. And you can’t just move around the CV ties because they control the position of the closure rails. Also the Fast Tracks turnout jig creates guard rails that are longer than the CV ties.

Still, I’m thinking one could start with the CV ties for rail gauging and temporarily spike the CV ties down to a piece of wallboard or homasote so it won’t move. Then remove select ties and replace them with PC ties.

Use the Fast Tracks point and frog jigs to file the rails, and do a quick job of soldering the rail to the PC ties so you don’t melt the plastic CV ties. With some practice, this shouldn’t be too hard – I regularly solder feeders to flex track and don’t melt the plastic ties, so it doesn’t sound too hard.

Finally, take a fresh xacto blade and cut just the tie plate detail off the ties you replaced with PC ties and superglue the tieplates to the PC ties.

The end result should be a totally NMRA standard compliant turnout with great looking tie plate detail. You can also order just the extra plastic turnout details from Central Valley, so you could make yourself a turnout that not only looks great, but should perform great too.

In fact, I’m considering making a video PDF for MR on doing just exactly this with the Fast Tracks point and frog jigs and the CV tie kit, so you could watch how it’s done. [swg]

NOTE: Central Valley recommends you just glue the rail down to their ties, but I want a turnout that

11

Thanks Joe. . .that’s what I needed. Hurry up with that video!

Tom Makofski

NorthEastern Wisconsin Free-mo

Total Membership of 2 and Growing!

tmak@new.rr.com

http://www.pbase.com/tmak2654952/my_work_bench

http://www.pbase.com/tmak2654952/galleries

12

Well what do you know … here’s someone else who has a similar idea (CV ties but fasten the rails down with PC ties and solder):

http://www.xclent.freeuk.com/p87/layout4.htm

We’ll have to keep an eye on this web site!