Homemade Turnouts

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I wanted to made a Timesaver layout But the hobby shop had no used turnouts and I didn’t want to spend 18 bucks apiece for 5 of them. They had a box of brass Atlas track so I decided to try using 2 18" radius curves to make a wye. It is the first I tried and I didn’t care about looks because it is for a Timesaver. At 25 cents apiece for the track and some doc. Mike’s glue that I already had It is cheap. Has anyone else done this? And is Doc. Mike’s glue any different than CA?.

2

Are you going to add the wing rails? If not, there’s likely to be some big kerthunkin’ happening at the frog.

Otherwise, pretty audacious–hope it works in operation. I look forward to photos of the finished layout!

Ed

3

Interesting. I would call it kit-bashed turnouts.

4

That’s interesting alright… like maybe something you might find on an amusement park’s train ride…

How long did it take you to make that btw?

John

5

It took me about one week and five days but I didn’t work on it as much as I could have. Since I’m home schooled I have a lot of spare time. I plan to make 4 more this time in assembly line fashion.

6

Nice job developing that homemade wye. The assembly line approach is the way to develop the rest of them.

Do you plan to “finish” the turnout by adding a frog and guard rails? That would seem crucial to proper operation.

Rich

7

Well, good job. That is the way I started building turnouts until I could afford to buy them. About the wing rails that folks keep asking about; they are part of the frog, in case you didn’t know that.

8

Have you tried pulling and pushing cars through it with a loco just to be sure it works as you need it to for a switching layout? That might be a good step before making more in the same fashion.

9

Great start, but you have a short currently at the frog, and the gap at the frog will cause issues. I would recommend that since you already kitbashed a turnout, just go ahead and scratch built them.

Fasttracks has a number of useful items even if you do not want to buy their jigs including turnout templates here:

http://www.handlaidtrack.com/Fast-Tracks-HO-Printable-Track-Templates-for-Turnouts-s/100.htm

And specifically a #4 turnout:

http://www.handlaidtrack.com/Fast-Tracks-HO-Printable-Track-Templates-for-Turnouts-s/100.htm

If you have more time than money you can learn this skill and you will never have to be stuck with only store bought turnouts and you can be like the prototype and build the turnout to fit the situation.

Or you can do something like this that has some crazy track configurations:

http://www.bronx-terminal.com/

Good Luck!

Chris

10

I realize there is a short at the frog. I forgot to put a gap there and will do it later. I connected it to track and push a car threw at high speed and one came off the track and one stayed on so I will have to take care of that.