Not knowing my coupler from my trucks, I walked into a local (30 miles away) Train store and feeling like I now know a few things I walked up to the owner with confidance that I knew what I wanted sooooooo…
I explain to the guy that I need a peice of track the joins two incoming tracks to one out going, a sort of a merge if you will, he looks at me like I just invented a new scale all on my own, he scratched his head and said “explain this too me slower”…huh?
I tell him I have a section on my layout where two tracks merge into one track, he tells me that I need to buy a $17.00 turn out and use it in reverse and will have to switch it depending on which track it is comming from…“But I don’t want to have to do that” I told him.
I then went over and looked at all his tracks and could not find one that was a simple upside down “Y” shape so I ask the guy what would happen if I bought a cheap turn out and removed the parts that make it nessassary to switch the tracks and this way no matter what track it was comming off the weight of the loco and cars would kick the loose track over from what ever side it is comming from, again he scratched his head and replied…“I don’t know lets try it out”.
He goes out back and comes back with a used one and we begin to dissassemble the manual mechcanics of the switch so in the end, the track can flop around freely, he takes it to his test bench, picks a heavy weight car and rolls it down a make shift straight way and it kicks the track over and it continues along it’s way, then he picks his lightest car and it also self switches and he is smiling.
He handed me the reworked “Y” section and told me too take it home and try it out and all he wanted to know was if it was consistant under normal use, he gave it too me free…and we all know how much I like “Free”.
So I have it at home and have been testing it in all kinds of train lengths and car weights and taking
The prototype railroads use them - they’re called spring switches. The difference with the real ones is that they can also be “thrown” like a regular switch when the train comes from the single-track end.
I’m confused. Are you bragging that you took a turnout and half disassembled it so that it will only work for trains going in one direction because you don’t want to be bothered throwing the switch? I assume it has an insulated frog.
I hope you never have to stop a train while it is still on the switch and then try to back it up. For that matter, I hope you never have to back through the switch.
If it’s really too much trouble to throw the switch, you could use occupancy detection to throw the switch for you when a train approaches. But then, most trains will go through an insulated frog switch the wrong way even if you forget to throw the switch. Some trains, usually steam, will experience a momentary short.
SUGAR!!! [sigh] I could have used that idea last year about this time when I was planning a layout I had in mind. I had the same thing happening where two different tracks merged at a point, went around the bend then seperated back into two.
This was very interesting Red Horse, thanks for sharing tha story.
" Elementary my dear Watson ! " If you have a manual turnout with no restriction, the force of motion will move the switch points so the wheels will continue. That’s a no brainer, but like mentioned above, it’s when you’re moving AGAINST the points is when you would likely to have a derailment in short order.
You could have done the same thing with a wye turnout since that’s basically what you’ve described. As others have said, if you never have to back thru the points then you’re fine.
I am confused though why you would have need for a uni-directional wye like that. Are you absolutely positive that you’ll never have to go the opposite direction thru it?
Just sounds like any turnout with out any “switch machine” or “spring” holding the points to one side or the other. Definitely a one-way thing. Just take that little built in spring out of a Peco, or don’t hook a switch machine to an Atlas. Ta-da. One of the back and forth layouts I built for a client used a very light piano wire for spring. The spring was so light the train could push it open, but then it always had a tiny bit of tension to hold the turnout in one position when the train came back the other direction. I’ve always called this arrangement a “spring loaded, slip” turnout.
Actually at one time the company called AHM did make a turnout with only one point just for this purpose. As the others have said, you could only back a train through it one way and that was scary because if that point moved the train made a great accordian.
There are also tracks that squeeze a double track into a three or 4 rail track to fit over a single “lane” bridge, tunnel, or something. The trains can never cross from one line to the other, so there are no points at all.
I am more than a little confused here. Why would you want a turnout that would operate in only one direction? From a practical standpoint, if all your traffic is only going in one direction, in a short time you are going to run out of cars beyond the diverging point. I’ve never heard of a one way railroad, either prototype or model.
Most people would flip the switch so the point rails make positive electrical contact with the other rails. You may encounter stalling problems with locos that have a short wheel base or less than all wheel pick up. You also won’t be able to run a train the other direction through the switch without problems.
I don’t get the hostility. Red Horse found a solution to his problem, that works for him. He wanted a spring switch, but didn’t need the spring. It isn’t a completely terrible idea.
It’s not hostility. No one is mad at him for doing it. We just can’t figure out WHY he did it.
I see no advantage, and lots of disadvantage. The train would have gone through the switch backward without disassembling it, and now it won’t go through it diverging.
I understand completely why the guy in the hobby shop was confused.
I used this canabilized switch because I needed two tracks to merge into one track, and if I ever find myself trying to back up my train at that junction then I’m in some real trouble, this section of track will never be run on back wards, hard to explain I guess, I just thought it very strange that the guy didn’t have a section off the rack for what I needed thats all, I was in no way “Bragging” about anything, I was shocked that what seemed like a simple request turned out too be an adventure for the Store owner, heck we both had some fun figuring that one out.
Some folks here make mention of a wye turn out, maybe this is what I needed from the guy and he just don’t know.
As for using something thats “never been seen on a prototipical or any other layout”, I told you I was weird when I started down this road and now it comes as a surprise???
If your having half as much fun as I am then it is a good day to laugh!
Jess, you probably could have used a manual turnout to do the same thing. They usually don’t have the switch mechanism on them unless it is a Micro Engineering or Peco brand. The store owner may not have been aware of that. At any rate, don’t let people sand-bag you. You got a free turnout that does what you want, and you can hook a machine to if you ever need to. LOL.[bow]
I read about that in Track Planning for Realistic Operation, it is called a gauntlet arrangement. It is used to allow two tracks to go across a 1 track bridge or through a 1 track tunnel as you said, thus saving money. Though, while there are no points, there still 2 frogs and 4 guard rails. Sounds like a fun thing to try and hand lay!
I was just thinking about that. A dogbone at the rear portion of my layout to run my very first train set, a Lionel HO from the mid 1960’s, on it’s own (DC)loop so the rest of the layout can run on DCC. I remember as a kid there was a quarter size carnival train using such a loop. A flat and slow roller coaster as a ride, but great space saving idea.&n
Yup, we did use a manual turn out but had to remove the switching part so the rails could move freely when “bumped” by the train, I cured the hesitation part by solidering wires too run current to the section.
Jess, I had a spring come out of one of my Peco turnouts and never fixed it, works just like yours. It happen to be coming out of a passing spur for the A line. I normaly park a train there to keep the main free, all I have to do is power up the parked train and off it goes. I do sort of like it. One of theses days I will fix the red horse turnout.[:D]
I GET IT! There;s I think, a similar thing in a protoype, where two track mains may need to narrow down to a single track bridge/tunnel. the “Points” were permanent, no onme needed to stand by it, track two could roll through as fine as Track one.