I have a frog that lands right in the middle of a joint. Can’t move the joint and can’t wiggle the T/O either way. It will be a 2 1/4 inch reach up to the throw bar. Can a tortise do it with a stronger throw wire than the one that comes with it. If so what diameter should I look at? Tks
Terry in Florida
Terry,
You have options:
Use .031 or .047 music wire(.025 is supplied)
Use a ‘remote’ linkage(Circuitron)
Creative forming of the music wire to throw from the side of the throwbar.
I used the Circuitron remote linkages for my staging area. They give you about 18" of cable so you can mount the Tortoise near the edge of the benchwork, and this makes it so much eaiser to install. They include a small ‘bellcrank’ device as the interface between the cable and the throwbar. They are not cheap, but it allowed me to install all of the Tortoises in this area on a singe mounting platform.
As far as vertical throw, we have Tortoises installed at the club that throw turnouts through 2" of foam(we used the .047 music wire). The Tortoise is installed on a small square of model aircraft plywood that is glued with PL300(foam safe) to the foam.
Jim
Tks for the info Jim. I think I will give it a try vertically first. If it has probs then I will investigate the remote idea. Again tks for your help.
Terry in Florida
Terry,
I had a simular problem trying to go through 1 1/4 “. The posters on this forum said get some .035” music wire. I couldn’t find it. So I was told to try ACE Hardware and they had to order it. It took two days but, It comes in a 4 piece bundle and cost about $8.00 for the bundle of four 36" long." ACE is the PLACE"
Willy actually I stopped in at a little ACE hardware a while back and they had a butt-load of differant sized music wire and itty bitty tubing. I bought a bunch. The problem is none of the pieces are labled so I have no clue on the diameter. I guess I will compare them to the wire that came with the tortise and pick the fat one. You never know when you will hit the mother load so I check out every place I go to for RR stuff.
Terry in FLorida
Well, unless your turnouts are particularly stiff (like a code 100, small number, with all-rail point rails (no pivot)), the Tortoise can easily throw even more than the arm moves, if you hook up linkages to amplify the movement. [:D]
Now, I don’t think that’s what you meant - so, you can either mount id way down below the throwbar location and use stiffer music wire, or you can put it off to the side, or use the remote mount they sell, or make your own similar mechanism. I plan to use a linkage similar to the way they do the remote mount for all my turnouts. Thus no large hole under the throwbar, instead a small hole with a tube guiding the actual throw wire which gets shaped sort of like an upside-down J and hooks in the throwbar. Underneath, a 90 degree bend with a loop onthe end to engage the Tortoise wire will activate it all. With that sort of arrangement, the Tortoise motion can be perpendicular to the throwbar rather than parallel to it - or any angle relative to the throwbar, for that matter. It all depends on which direction you make the 90 degree bend on the bottom. There is no need for the Tortoise to be directly under the turnout it controls with such a linkage. It can even be a relatively large distance away with a piece of music wire connecting the throw arm to the rest of the linkage (push/pull action) and that can be as far away as it needs to be - you can even drill a whole through a piece of the benchwork to pass the wire and put the Tortoise all they way in a different part underneath.
In short,t here are a million ways to link the motion of the Torotise to the throwbar of your turnout so no matter where the turnout falls relative to benchwork supports there is always some way you can link it all up.
&nb
Tks Randy. I hadn’t really given it much thought figuring I would go the traditional vertical mount. But after reading your reply I think I will crawl under the BW and see what I can come up with. FWIW it will be a code 83 hand laid t/o (fast trks). I have the bench work done but am still waiting on a box-o stuff from Fast Trks before I can actually start putting trk to cork.
Terry in Florida
Tortoises don’t actually have hands, so they can’t throw far at all.
Unless it is a Galapagos tortoise, or one of the big ones I used to see in Arizona, I bet I could throw one pretty far, myself.
I think you could rig up some levers and whatnot and make a Tortoise-powered trebuchet and throw stuff pretty far. I’ll have to try that sometime. LOL.
–Randy
I’ve low clearance at my segments. Therefore I’ve made a special construction for my Tortoise:
You can see more at my site.
Wolfgang