I am getting ready to attempt building wyes and turn-outs in HO. Plan to use Fast-Trax templates. I have an article from a June 1983 MR magazine by Laurence Ballou on “Building Turnouts at the Workbench.” Are there other good resources on scratch building turn-outs other than the Fast-Trax videos which I have already watched.
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated as you all really helped me on hand laying my first siding with your tips and suggestions.
Jim
i found Tony Koester’s article, Build a turnout from scratch, encouraging and full of info. He builds them on the layout for a custom fit.
the book, Trackwork and Lineside Detail contains several articles on turnouts
The current issue of MR magazine.
Rich
Make sure to mind gauge at the points as well as the wing/guard rails. Relying solely on the jig will give you tight gauges…
If you want the best possible turnout, build it on-site - and use full length (36 inch or 1 meter) stock rails if electrical gapping allows.
I hand-lay turnouts with a method that is Definitely not patented - and if you enter that in the search block and go to 2007 entries you’ll find all the details. I work with two three point gauges on the rails and an NMRA flat gauge in the hand that isn’t holding the spiking pliers.
There is a learning curve to hand laying turnouts, but the old carpenter’s maxim, “Measure twice, cut once,” is a good place to start. Once you master the techniques you’ll be able to tackle anything, even a station throat full of double slip switches. The cost is nice, too…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with hand-laid specialwork)
Chuck, your reply interests me because I remain fascinated with hand laid turnouts although I have never done one.
I understand that there is a learning curve, and it has to be tremendously satisfying to complete a flawless turnout.
But, what about cost? You mention that “the cost is nice”. Is it really less expensive to build your own after taking into account materials, jigs, and templates? There must be a breakpoint between building a few and building many.
Rich
Rich, my jig cost is ZERO. My template is made by bending flex track and running a pencil along the tie ends. I estimate that my hand laid turnouts cost about as much per each as a single length of cheap flex track. If you use an electrical switch as a manual throw mechanism you will have change from $10.00, total cost.
The fact that the rail geometry is what YOU want, not what you can buy in a bubble pack or box, is even better.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You really don’t need the jig. Back in the '90s I tried my hand at scratchbuilding a turnout, three-way turnout, dual-gauge turnout, and double slip switch with nothing more than reference drawings.
If you’re going to be mass producing dozens of them, then the jig would probably be worth the cost. If you’re doing a small layout than it’s probably not worth it. Add up the cost of all the jigs you’ll need and divide that by the number of turnouts. That’s the additional cost you’ll need to add on to each turnout.
The nice thing about not using a jig is that you’re not limited to certain sizes. You can custom fit a turnout to a particular spot.
Steve S
Fair enough. But without a jig, isn’t the learning curve that much more steep?
Rich
I first tried building a turnout on a scrap piece of homasote without ties using rails from an old piece of flex track.
On my layout, I followed Tony Koester’s steps, building it in place without a jig. It turned out well enough and encouraged me to build all my turnouts.
Rich, a jig is handy, especially to help learn and to keep the rails in place while you fumble your way through the first couple of constructions. After that, though, your more educated eye, some gauges, and a well-prepared roadbed are all that you need, plus the files and rail stock and some soldering gear if using PCB ties with copper cladding (they really help with electrical continuity along the turnout).
There came a time, maybe after building five #8’s and a couple of double-slip turnouts using jigs that I understood how building custom handlaid turnouts could be done if one used the gauges often and properly. Since then, I have built a number of odd turnouts that had to fit specific and unique requirements, and they work well. One, my latest, looks horrible, frankly, because I had to fiddle with it a bit, but I can tell you in all honesty that I can smoke a BLI Niagara and a long set of smooth-side and heavyweight passenger cars through it in either direction at a scale 100 mph. I was puckered up down there the first time I gathered the courage to give it a determined try, but when the Niagara got through, I knew I was away to the races. If your track geometry is anything near a #6 or higher and you have your gauge and clearances set to the standard, or better, your trains will like what they get from you.
At the risk of being a “naysayer” - I much prefer “devil’s advocate” - may I say…
It takes a well skilled and knowledgeable person to hand build a turnout (or even to hand lay track). Those that do it and write articles about the process are certainly in that category.
I am familiar with “fast tracks” templates and they are a help, but the cost and time (add in learning curve) is hard to justify that pathway.
For those with the skills and the time and the need for “special fit turnouts”, I say “go for it”. But for the rest of us, it is an exercise in frustration and patience.
Just for grins, I wonder how many of the good folks on this forum have built their own turnout(s) and the result was a keeper that stood the test of time.
Good Morning!
I know a guy who spent a few hundred dollars on the fast tracks jigs and materials. He got one keeper, one reliable turnout. It took many tries, lots of scrap, and stretched his patience. He then sold the fast tracks jigs. The thing is, he could have bought a commercial turnout and saved $175 bucks in the process. Without the jigs, he would have been all but incapable of building even so-so turnouts.
Rich
Anyone who can lay Shinohara flex to a consistent curve can build hand-laid specialwork. For this stiff-fingered arthritic old coot it’s simply a matter of cutting, bending and filing rail and keeping everything in gauge and securely anchored while applying soldering tool and solder. Filing points is a skill easily and quickly learned, even points with a non-standard form that work with notchless stock rails.
Much as I admire the product, I agree. Back when I was a newbie there were no jigs, and if you didn’t hand-lay you didn’t have any specialwork.
The best part of hand laying - even better than the price - is the ability to set your own track geometry. If you can bend flex to each route and run a train over it, you can build it. Hence three way switches with two routes curving left, turnouts connecting two curves where the ‘straight’ route is a spiral easement, puzzle palaces of double slips…
Back in 1980 I built a terminal station roughly based on the trac
I have already built about fifty turnouts for my 10’ by 19’ double deck layout (still about 10 to go). All have been keepers. The only problem I have had is the occaisional point rail popping loose from the throw bar (easily re-soldered). I have only purchased PC ties and a #6 frog/point rail filing jig from Fast Tracks. I also use a flat mill file, a soldering iron and a single NMRA track gauge. I made my own jig by gluing a copy of the Fast Tracks #6 Turnout Template (from the catalog they sent with the PC ties and filing jig) to a piece of plywood, then using a thin plywood blade in a table saw to cut grooves across the jig where the PC ties were to be located. The template includes both left and right hand #6 turnouts so one jig serves both types of turnouts. I glued short pieces of PC ties into the grooves as stops to make locating the various PC ties a little faster. I also found that stripping the rails out of lengths of flex track is cheaper than buying individual rail stock. This also gives me plenty of extra ties to use filling in gaps under the track joiners.
Yes, it takes a little practice and patience, but my very first turnout is fully operational and on my layout. Best of all, I figured out after making a few regular #6 turnouts that I could make virtually any turnout I need using the same skills and tools used for the #6 turnouts. I have built curved turnouts, constant radius diverging route turnouts, and constant radius wye turnouts for use in special locations. For turnout angles other than #6, I find that the #6 frog/point rail filing jig quickly gets me close to the desired turnout angle that can then be filed by hand to achieve the final angle. Virtually anything is possible now.
How do they operate? Very nicely if I do say so myself. Locos and cars glide through the turnouts with little noise and almost no derailments. Far better performance thay I ever got
How many of mine have stood the test of time? All of them. Even the scratched one I had to build in place because it was unique. It’s a long curved #10 or so. I lifted it out of my last layout and inserted it on my latest build. Works like a hot damn. As Chuck would know, and stated in his post higher, my first couple were nothing to brag about, but they worked, and they’re still together.
A Jig really doesn’t do any good if you need a specal type of turnout to fit a tight area on the layout.
Real hand laying of a turnout is the only way.
I had to have 2 double curved turnouts one inside the other (almost like a curved 3 way) on my layout - built it back in 2003 - still works fine.
I use the PC board ties to hold everything together.
My last hand laid trackwork was a crossing - one side was straight but the other was an 18" radius curve - that one was interesting to build. This was in an industrial area.
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Count me as another hand layer whose first (and subsequent) turnouts lasted the lifetime of the layout they were laid on - 9 years. These were laid on Celotex - a material a little softer than Homasote.
The only failure I have ever had was an Atlas kit turnout - yes, they made turnout kits in the '50s - that I bought second hand. The turnout didn’t really fail, but the cork roadbed it was spiked into dried out and crumbled. I don’t always learn from my first mistake. In the '90s, I bought some more cork roadbed for use on a 3 rail tinplate layout. Less than 5 years later, the cork had crumbled in the box it was shipped in.
In my opinion and experience, a handlaid turnout spiked into Homasote will outlast any commercial turnout.
I first tried hand laying in 1975 because I was a newly wed on active duty bringing home less than $500 a month (and paying $200/month rent). Even Atlas products were out of my reach. So armed with Jack Work’s Turnouts for the Better (April 1963 MR), I started hand laying. I was surprised at how easy it was, and how well it worked.
As TT has explained, Fast Track jigs are unnecessary for even a ham-fisted baboon like me. The Fast Track jigs, materials, and instructions are great for giving the fearful confidence to hand lay. If you can successfully assemble a plastic kit wi
So let’s say that I want to try to hand lay a turnout, no jigs, no templates.
What do I buy?
Rail?
Ties?
Spikes?
Frog?
What else?
Rich
printed circuit board (PC) ties are very helpful
I know you can buy frogs, but they are not hard to make
you probably need a tie jig, which you can also make
