I’d like a good, easy, reliable, non-electric way to control turnouts. Does anyone have such a manual method (I mean other than the ground throw type)?
I like to take some type of larger gauge wire (like Clothes Hanger gauge) and I put one end up through the bottom of the layout and attach it to the turnout. The other end crosses under the layout and out of the side of the benchwork. I bend the end of the wire at a 90 degree angle so I can manipulate it easily. This allows you to control the turnout in a discreet, clean manner and you do not have to put your hands all over the layout!
Here are some possibilities other people have posted:
Check them out
The ‘classic’ method uses a slide swith with 2 holes drilled int he handle. The switch mounts under the turnout, a wire much like the operating wire from a Tortoise goes up to the track switch, and a heavier wire runs to the fascia for installation of some sort of knob. The slide switch provides a positive lock in position plus gives you electrical contacts to power the frog and/or signals. It’s been covered at least half a dozen times in MR over the years, and surely in other magazines and books.
A recent variation I saw gets installed much like the Humpyard product, but instead of their operating levers you use a toggle switch. Drill a hole through the handle and the operating rod attached there. Clicking the switch back and forth operates the points and, once again, gives you electrical contacts.
–Randy
I personally use the slide switch method, but with the switch mounted in a niche in the fascia below track (and scenery) level, and a home-brew Anderson link at the turnout proper. That keeps the electrical connections where they can be worked on while sitting in a chair in the aisleway. (standing on my head under the layout isn’t my thing!)
It also keeps the slide switch (the part most likely to fail) where it can be replaced easily.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
This isnt in the context of this particular forum but under Manual Throws I’ll post it anyway.
These are nice ideas but for myself for a shelf layout I like a more hands on. I took an idea from Dan Crowley on manual throws (below). I do like the idea of the coat hangers and might give that a try.
I used the top of an injector to test blood for sugar levels. In Michaels I found the ear ring pieces needed. I have Atlas switches and using a dremel I cut off the outer hole of the throw arm- and pushed the ear ring post up through the existing hole and pushed on tight the ear ring clasp then the top from the injector, which already has a smaller hole from the needle it covers. I cut off a small piece of the arm of the injector and using Gorilla Glue pasted it to the bottom of the ear ring post which is flat and round. This gives an upward pressure to the throw arm, when throwing the switch it stays in place. I painted everything black, then one side of the top red the other green and turn them when the switch is thrown to show direction.
The switches can still be used electrically because the motor throw arm uses the innermost hole.
Dan Crowley’s
YELLOWHEAD RAILWAY CO LTD.
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/crowley/index.htm
Here’s my idea -(more pics in my album)
Electrical or not, a small slide switch is hard to beat.
I love the Humpyard levers, and will probably use them in all my yards that are not suitible for Caboose ground throws.
I belonged to a club in Taxachusetts over forty years ago and they used choke cables - I never counted exactly how many were in use but there must’ve been over a hundred on the layout.
If you have ever seen these (choke cables) you pull them out and they lock in position to the side. You do not need to be one of the proverbial rocket scientists to figure out what you need to do to get them to work. The cable tip attaches to the throw on your switch and you got it done. These are, I understand, still being manufactured and, I will presume, can still be either purchased or ordered at auto parts houses. Those for use in automobiles are usually four to five feet in length; these are also used in farm equipment and can be purchased in longer lengths.
They are dirt cheap. In 1957 I replaced one in a 1941 Cadillac I owned and it cost me less than 25¢.
I have used linkages made from dowels (worked, but complicated) and a variation on the doorbolt method shown above-instead of a doorbolt, I install a dowel through the fascia and attach the control line to a pin in the dowel. A cleverly placed small eyebolt allows you to change the direction of the line, mutilple times if neccesary. Then you can turn the dowel to “reel in” or “let out” the line that controls the piano wire throw rod. Less than one turn is all it takes to throw the turnout. This worked very well for me and is cheap and simple. I also like the fact that the spring wire will hold the points tight to the stock rail in one position and the tension on the control line does the same in the other position. However, there is enough spring in the piano wire to allow you to run through misaligned switches without disaster.
Jim