If you remember, the Posts for the end Loop module containing the street trackage are out of sequence. A Post on drawing the track plan for this module on top of should have been 1st.
In the prior Post a photo of the desk lamp used by me was taken just before the Post was published. The track work for the loop of track for this end module was completed as shown in the photo.
As you'll discover, the turnouts must be located before any other track work is done. Also, I just as excited and nervous as you are to see what happens. This is not nearly as difficult as you may think it is. Take a deep breath and start to work!
In the US for O scale there’s 2 sources of the Point/Mate part of the turnout. The 1st source is Right-O-Way (ROW) products which was originally owned by Lou Cross. Upon Lou’s death Jay Criswell, 2286 Hampton Way, Clovis CA 93611-6047, has taken over the product line.
I’ve talked
to Jay and found out besides being the new owner of ROW, he is one of the
executors of Lou’s estate. He has lots of work to do with both the estate and
ROW. He is selling ROW products if you contact him.
The ROW
Point /Mate for street trackage works with almost all O scale wheel sets from
the old original 0172” down to the 0.135”flange. The 0.115 flange of fine scale
may be a problem. This set of points is designed for a 15” radius curve if my memory serves correctly. It
will accommodate both smaller and wider curves.
This is the Right-O-Way Point/Mate for street track. This is an older product received from Lou Cross several years ago. The price is not up to date. The instructions on the left tell how to install the point.
The
Point/Mate available from ProtoCraft, 18498 Half Moon Street, Unit 203, Somona
CA 95476-4835 is intended for fine scale applications. The point and mate will
match the profile of Clouser rail. The flangeway is not deep enough for most O
scale application outside of fine scale.
ProtoCraft
has a number of unique items. Be sure to look as his decal section. From what I
can tell he’s a one man operation. He’s away from the shop during O scale meets
both fine scale and regular.
The ProtoCraft Point/Mate for street track were ordered as a pair. The price on the package insert/instructions is for one Point/Mate. The instructions are very complete.
Outside of
the USA, Greg King in Australia has a Point/Mate for street trackage. He has a
slightly different way to operate the point. His price seems to be slightly
lower than here in the States. If anyone wants to contact him feel free to
contact me via email.
This is how the Point/Mate arrived from Greg King. The 2 castings are soldered to the ties. The additional brass in the center are attached to the point. Moving the brass lever will move the point.
Back to the
Point/Mate castings available here. Before starting to install the point and
mate castings, the pieces of rail which stick out from the castings and are
intended for ease of installation need to be inspected. They may be out of alignment,
left to right or up and down. A good sturdy pair of pliers and/or a small vise
may be necessary to straight out the rail. This inspection and correction is
important to be done now since it may be impossible to do later!
Next
carefully follow the instructions which come with the castings regarding the
installation of the switch point. There’s 3 ways to deal with the operation of
the single point:
1.
Power
the point with a switch motor, cable or lever of your choice under the layout,
2.
Spring
power the point with a “weak” spring under the layout, and
3.
Finger
nail power the point.
If a street turnout is located in a remote or hard to get to location, the point will have to e operated by either an electric switch motor, some type of cable or lever system, or a spring. Almost any available switch motor can be hooked up. For a cable and/or lever systems you'll have to read about them in older hobby magazines.
The “weak”
spring only needs to be able to snap the point back into place. If a stronger
spring is used light models going wrong way through the switch may derail. Be
sure to institute the rule of not stopping and reversing direction over a
spring switch!
The “finger
nail” operated point is interesting. It mimics the prototype operation of the
operator of the streetcar using a switch iron to manually move the point to the
desired route.
On to the
installation – the 2 castings must be soldered onto suitable ties. Clover House,
PO Box 215, Veradale WA 99037-0215 has copper clad (both sides) of electrical
board cut into 2 sizes (plus a small sheet) suitable for in-the-street track.
[The
addresses for ROW, ProtoCraft, and Clovis House were included in this post.
Each has their own web site
and often a phone number is listed. You can look these up yourselves.]
We'll look more into the installation of the Point/Mate in the next Post.
Cheers,
Ed
No comments:
Post a Comment