Esso on Main St. 		Fast Tracks turnouts
Spring 2007
Gimping Around

Although I've been pretty happy with the Atlas code 55 turnouts on my layout, I decided to find out what it's like to hand lay my own. Not knowing where to start, I went with the Fast Tracks jigs (http://housatonicrr.fast-tracks.net). It certainly takes some practice, especially the soldering, and I consider myself a good solderer as I'm a EE and have been noodling around with electronics since I was a teenager. The Fast Tracks recommendation of using a conical point soldering tip didn't work for me though. May be it works better in HO scale where the ties are bigger and there's more room in the jig to get the hot part of the tip (not the extreme tip, but the side of the tip) on the tie and rail at the same time. Instead, I found a small blunt edge tip worked much better (Weller tip #ST1 - "screwdriver tip 0.06"x1.6mm). You can see the difference in the first three turnouts I made (these are #8 turnouts by the way) which used the conical tip, and the final turnouts installed on the layout which used the blunt tip. Much better results!

Overall I'm happy with the results, but I still had some problems with the jigs. When filing the points, the points actually become too sharp (and thin) and need to be cut back to a stable length. They mention this in the instructions, but in doing so there's an unfiled, thick section of the point that will contact the stock rail preventing the tip of the point from seating against the stock rail so some additional filing is required. This is best done prior to building the turnout :-) Also, the points end up being kind of stiff and "hard" to move using a standard Tortoise switch machine mounting. So I came up with an alternate linkage to connect the switch machine using some brass tubing (1/16" x .014") and rod (.032") as shown in the pictures. This has worked really great and yields such slow, smooth movement I may just convert all my turnouts to this method!

Click small image for larger view.


My first three attempts at #8 turnouts
First attempt closeup
Second attempt
Closeup on points

Fourth and fifth attempts
Fourth turnout I made, installed
The fifth turnout I made, installed.
Point rails closeup

Frog closeup
Sighting along the rails these turnouts look really nice.
Looking down the track
Looking down the track

New switch machine linkage
New switch machine linkage
New switch machine linkage
New switch machine linkage

New switch machine linkage