I have a couple Shinohara turnouts where the little jumper wires on the underside have lost contact with the rails. Can they be repaired? If so what are the options or is it best to toss them and buy new?
I have a couple of old Shinohara 3-ways I’m planning to use. I tested them out with new Peco motors, and discovered the electrical contact of the points was flakey at best. So, I bought some cheap relays, and I’ll run them in parallel with the switch motors. One side of the DPDT relays will power the frogs, and the other will be available for signals or control panel indicators. It’s all a little awkward, but the relays are a lot cheaper than replacing the turnouts.
I think Tortoise motors come with built-in contacts for this purpose, if you’re using those.
Mister Beasly is right the Tortoise comes w/ 2 sets of contacts and would be the best way to go.
If you can’t repair them don’t waste them… they make great MoW Gondola loads. I’ve seen pics of them loaded on edge and on frames at an angle to keep them within the loading guage. It’s a really messy load but it looks great/different.
The other thing to do is use them at trackside as parts taken out waiting to be removed or parts waiting to go into use. The exact pattern for this will depend on your era… modern stuff tends to be done in panels …older stuff tended to be moved (often by hand) as smaller components.
If you don’t want them I’ll have them!!! [:D][:D][:D]
Then again… You could do all three…
Put the blades in a Gon as a load (maybe on a flat)… either used or new.
Take the common crossing and guard rails and set them beside a switch needing new parts (neatly stacked… new parts are expensive)
Pile the long ties (safely clear of trains) waiting disposal and “weather” the adjacent switch ties as brand new with new ultra-clean ballast (AAAAGH! I’m back onto ballast)!
Someone else can do the arithmatic for the number of variations of these themes possible!
Does anyone (Walthers/Shinohara …?) do handed instad of asymetric 3 way turnouts?