Part 4C Turnout in Street - Location, Location, Location

Where is the Point/Mate/street ties soldered assembly to be located? This is the part of the work on the street trackage which should have been done 1^st. You may have seem in some of the photos in prior Posts, the pencil drawing on top of the module.

This should have done this as soon as the wood work for the module was completed. OR, drawn on the piece of plywood to be used as the top of the module was cut prior to installation.

(For my modules when the 2 plain pieces of plywood for the tops of the modules for the 90 degree turns in the track were cut, almost immediately the center point of the ¼ turns of track were cut-off. More about this later!)

You should have besides the center point of the track drawn:
·         the location of the rails,
·         the beginning and ending points of curves, and
·         a line from the center point of the curve (circle) to the end of the curved rail.

Most important are the center line of the straight track plus the center line of the curve for locating the Point/Mate/street ties soldered assembly.

I used a photocopy of the #3 frog turnout.

The ties are the squiggles. Note the frog point is NOT on a tie. If the turnout is to be in open track, an additional tie has to be added under the frog point. The small red lines are the locations of the ends of the points plus where the stock rails are to be filed away.

The center lines of the straight and curved track of the turnout drawn on the module matched those on the photocopy! I noticed when the photocopy was in position, the end of the movable point was at the line drawn from the center point of the curve (circle) to the end of the curved rail. 

Although the photocopy can be glued to the module top, I did not do this. Just locating the end of the movable point of the Point/Mate assembly was enough of a guide for me.

Blue Arrow = the line to locate where the end of the circle

Maroon Arrow = where the center of the circle and straight track meet

Green arrows = center lines of the circle and straight track

Red Arrows = where rail lines and the center of the rail in casting meet

White Arrow = 1/4" hole to control point

In the above photo, note where the end of the point in the casting is located. To help in locating the 2 castings, short sections of rail had been attached to the Point/Mate assembly. They had been removed before the photo was taken. BTW - I discovered the other set of pencil lines were not drawn in the correct location.

[My method of making a street turnout will give you a curved frog. If you desire a street turnout with a straight tangent of track between the movable point and the frog like in Chicago and other cities you will need to have a drawing of your street turnout. Use photocopies of the street turnout glued to the module to locate and make the turnout. The center points of the straight and curved track are still used to locate the photocopy.]

Next, no matter how you decide to “power” your street turnout, 2 holes have to be drilled into the plywood top of the module. One hole is to be located where the brass tube is attached to the point protrudes from the bottom of the soldered assembly. This tube may be eventually attached to a switch machine or a spring.

The other hole is to be located where the prototype point would be attached to a real life switch machine or pull chain mechanism. You’ll notice a small hole in the lever attached to the point. The wire finger from a model switch machine can be placed into this hole to move the switch point. A ¼” twist drill was chosen to make for both holes. If the holes are too large and method to fix this will be shown later.

The turnout will be finished in the next Post.

Cheers,
Ed