I’m thinking about building my own turnouts. I’m at the break-even point where it would be advantageous to “roll my own” instead of buying finished turnouts. But I’ve never attempted this before. So the question is: How difficult is it to build your own turnouts, with no experience? Will the assembly kits from Fast Tracks reduce a lot of the fustration involved? I’m at the point where the unit cost is less using the Fast Tracks system, and I won’t be held up waiting for delivery of turnouts either. So would this be a good route, making it possible for someone who has never done this before to make good turnouts without a lot of learning?
I bought a jig at the National Train Show and sat down Sunday night to build my first turnout with it. It was pretty straight-forward. Took about 2 1/2 hours. The next one will take less time, I’m sure. Even on my first turnout, the trucks roll through the frog much smoother than with a commercial turout.
I have yet to attach the tie strip and paint the turnout, but I anticipate no problem.
Seems to have been a good investment.
Do you have prior experience handlaying track? I’ve never attempted handlaying anything, but at the NTS I stood there and watched them build turnouts at the Fastracks booth and kept thinking, “I can definitely do this.” So I am also thinking about ordering a set for any future construction.
–Randy
I manufactured six #8 turnouts of theirs, and built a curved #9(ish) in place using the #8 frog jigs and tweaking it a bit to work. I have also partially built a #6 double-slip using their jigs.
As Marks says, they are very slick. You must pay attention to the video, and take your time to do all he says you should do. For example, grinding away the inside foot of the stock rails where the points lie is critical, and you must do it completely and thoroughly if you want the point rails to work well.
The break-even point, for most of us, will be at the 6-8 turnout point, but more-so when you consider that you will never have to purchase another commercial turnout, and that you will build among the best turnouts you can get whenever the mood/need strikes you.
It is actually quicker than tuning commercial turnouts. I bought the jig and built my second turnout in under 45 minutes. The turnouts are better than commercial prefab offerings.
Just a thought
Harold
Randy,
I do have prior experience laying my own track and building turnouts - way back in college (30 years ago). I built the turnouts following an article from an even older Model Railroader.
The key thing with the Fasttracks jig is good soldering. The jig holds all the tracks in the correct orientation. You need to make sure it will stay that way when you remove the turnout. I even went so far as to buy one of the same Weller soldering irons they use (from a different vendor - it was a little cheaper).
This is one of my best modeling investments in years.
Soldering, I can do. Anything from delicate electronics to big #12 bus wires. I just need to spring for a GOOD iron like the Weller. And with some background in machining, I know how to use jigs and fixtures. I don’t know if you were there at the same time I was - I was the one that asked how long the point and frog jig would hold up.
Only thing I’m not so sure about it their use of acid flux. Even if you clean it off, there’s still residue and I’d be afraid it would eventually eat the copper cladding on the pc ties. I don’t knwo what they were using at the trains how, but in the video that’s on the CD they handed out, he specifically mentions that it is indeed acid flux. Maybe I’m just paranoid, after all the “never EVER use acid flux on electronics!” mantras over the years. Hmm, works ok on copper pipe, guess it wouldn’t eat copper cladding or nickel silver either.
–Randy
Acid flux works because the turnout can be washed completely free of the acid flux unlike an electrical device which cannot be immersed in water. If you are really paranoid use a baking soda bath. Mine have been setting for a month and are still bright and shiny.
Harold
Randy, the acid in the flux will only react until it is taken up. Acid gets used in any oxydative reaction, so it is limited. Personally, I used just enough on a very small artist’s paint brush to see a smudge on the PCB tie. After assembly, I washed each turnout in warm sudsy water using a vegetable brush to ensure all surfaces were scoured. To date, each turnout looks fine. And, if you-know-what happens, as is its wont, remove the turnout, or desolder the offending tie and slip it out, to be replaced.
Randy, if nothing else counts in turnouts, the frogs do, and these will have you giggling when you see how well yours work. They are that nice.
-Crandell
Hi betamax. I have recently started using my fastrack jig. I’ve done 5 so far and impressed at easy it is but the big thing they are constint which is most important. As I have 80 somehting left to do progess will be slow but steady. cheers womblenz
I completed my first turnout, except for painting, last night. The only place my test trucks click is on the frog isolation gaps. Even my first effort is smoother than the Walthers / Shinohara turnouts I’ve been using!
Tonight I’ll paint the turnout, and in a few weeks it’ll go onto the layout.
By the time I’m done I’ll have put about 4 hours into the turnout. The next one will go faster, I’m sure.
For an alternative, I just finished completing my first try at hand making a turnout. I followed to the letter, Tony Koester’s article “Building a Turnout from Scratch” in MR’s “Trackwork and Lineside Detail”. I tried it because I was a little hung up on the cost of the jig and stuff. I am most proud of the results. Everything works great, it looks great, and all MNRA gauge stds are there, and the wheels and trucks go through smoothly, and its wired for DCC with isolated frog. It did take me a while, but I’m into my 2nd turnout and the time will be halved, and I can see by the third one, it will be quite easy. Matches my 20’ of first time trying hand laid track as well. Hand laid track is not for everyone, I’m sure, but it works for a novice like me. I wouldn’t want anyone to be scared away from trying it without a jig. However, with the jig it can be done at the work bench. Hal
I REALLY appreciate this thread. [:)]
I’ve been quite impressed with the Fast Tracks system for a while now and love the look of hand-laid track. I had a friend from my club bring a double-crossover over one time, that a friend of his had made, and it was just BEAUTIFUL! The cars just rolled through the turnout without a click. Now you’ve got me (re)thinking about investing in the Fast Tracks system again.
I do have a question for either Harold, Crandell, and Mark: Can you alter the overall length of the FS turnouts fairly easily? If so, how much? For instance, say I want to fit a #6 turnout into a #4 or #5 turnout spot. Is there enough “overlap” on the ends that I could trim the end to make that kind of adjustment?
Thanks for the responses…
Tom
You can cut some length off of the ends, but in my mind that’s really not part of the turnout anyway. But I don’t see how you are ever going to fit a #6 into the space of a #4, since the distance from the points to the frog, and the diverging angle are fixed there just ins’t anything you can do about it. That’s what makes a #6 a #6, after all (of course you knew that). You can look at the tie templates for the Fast Tracks turnouts on their website, anything after the last PC board tie could be cut off, so from that you can see what is possible.
I agree. The geometry is different, unless you make allowances for between-track distances so that the newer angle matches. So, yes, I have cropped the extremeties of my #8’s, but you must ensure that you don’t force a tighter curve than you had intented by placing diverging and through tracks too close together.
Mark, have you a jeweller’s saw? I paid for one (gulp!..import duties and all made it almost not worthwhile), but it does a superb job of the frog isolation cuts. In fact, you have to squint to see them…believe it or not. I do not like the effect that a cut-off disk, diamond or not, has on my track. In comparison, the latter leaves a canyon.
Ed Stimpson had an article in the May 1978 Model Railroader, " Maintenance-Free Turnouts", that developed turnouts on the workbench using PC board ties. It was the same concept as Fast Track jig but they were built using a paper diagram. I have built turnouts at the bench using his article and they work really well.
I will use Ed’s method for special turnouts but the Fast Tracks jig makes regular turnouts so much faster. I have built curved crossovers using paper diagrams as Ed described. Building turnouts in place on the layout gets really old when the turnout isn’t quite right and is located in that arm’s length place.
The PC board turnout built on the bench is the only way to build turnouts for ease and reliability
Just a thought
Harold
Jeff & Crandell,
Yes, I’m aware of the difference in diverging angles of the difference size turnouts. I’m sorry I wasn’t a bit clearer in my question. I was speaking specifically of the straight portion of the turnout and how much of that could be trimmed off to make it shorter.
Taking an Atlas turnout as an example, a #6 turnout is 12" long; a #4 turnout, 9" long. I was just curious how much the Fast Track turnouts could be trimmed down - without effecting the operational smoothness of the turnout. Is my question more clear and make more sense now? Thanks.
Tom
Tom-
I thought that was what you meant. If you look at the templates (for example http://www.handlaidtrack.com/cd/templates/n-6-turnout-tie-template.pdf ) you can see where the PC board ties are. You could cut outside of those. You might be able to even put them a bit farther back and make the cut, as long as everything is supported.
I have made a few now, and I have to say they really look good. I’m still improving, I know that my best have yet to be built. In N scale, at least, you need to make sure the guard rails don’t get too close to the stock rails, and as someone else said you must absolutely do a good job of removing the base of the stock rails where the points will nest. I have actually found the most annoying part adding all of the non-PC ties. They make the nifty quick-sticks, but I am cheap… If I wanted to lay the ties in place and then lay the turnout on them it relly woulnd’t be a problem, since it would not matter if they actually bonded, but I am trying to build on the bench and then move the whole thing into place.
Tom, they can be cut right down to just after the points, and just after the frogs, if you wish. I just measured my #8, and I would not feel comfortable paring it down below a full 10".
I can’t say for sure, but I would guess one of their # 6 turnouts could be brought down nearer to 9". May I suggest that you log onto their site (handlaidtrack.com), and you can download and print a true-sized template for all of their turnouts.
-Crandell