What to Do 1st When You Obtain Your Street Turnout Point and Mate Castings Before You Mount Them

When you open the package of the street point and mate turnout castings there will be 4 castings plus a sheet of instructions. The 4 castings are the:

• point holding casting,
• the mate casting,
• the turnout point, and
• cover plate.

If you have a right hand turnout, the point holding casting is mounted on the right side with the small square opening on the inside of the turnout. For the left hand turnout, the point holding casting is mounted on the left. The small square opening is again on the inside. Do not mix up the castings as the right hand mate is different from the left hand mate!

Test fit the cover plate. Examine the turnout point to see if the casting is broken. Put both of them aside where you will not forget they are. Next read and re-read the instructions, You'll be using the instructions soon.

The se are the bottom view of the point and mate of a right hand turnout. The 2 separate point castings are shown at the top of the photo. These are a top and bottom view. Only 1 of these point castings comes with a turnout.

Pick-up one of the 2 larger castings. Run your finger over the casting. Remove any excess metal on the casting. This includes the sprue or small beads of metal.

Blue Oval = DLW for David L. Waddington the master modeler who made the original pattern.

Red Arrows = areas to clean with a file or cut-off tool. Sometimes a sprue is still attached on the bottom at the left side of the photo.

Green Arrow = do not touch or alter!

Next test the piece for square-ness using the metal ruler from a machinist square. Place the metal ruler along the sides, top and bottom of the casting.

The most common problem with the castings is the code 125 rails attached to the castings. If one or more of the pieces of rail need to be bent to the side or up or down, use a pair of pliers with wide jaws. Grip the piece of rail where the piece joins the main casting. Bend the rail then again test for square-ness.

Red Ellipse = short piece of rail needs to be bent to the side.

Blue Circle = short piece of rail needs to be bent up.

Normally I work on a 1/4" piece of plate glass. The plate glass is FLAT. When you are truing or squaring the casting place it on something absolutely flat. The casting must rest FLAT and not rock back and forth. Light should not show under the casting. The straight rails must straight through the entire length of the casting.

When you are satisfied with this casting place it aside and do the same with the other casting. Next the casting can be installed. If you are making a street turnout most modelers mount the 2 castings on PC board ties available from Clover House http://cloverhouse.com/Store/ .

Some trolley lines if mounting a turnout in open track will use the street turnout castings for the turnout. I plan to show you this in a later Post.

Cheers,
Ed

2017 March Chicago O Scale Meet

The annual 2017 March Chicago O Scale Meet is over. The venders are on their way home. Many O scale models and parts have exchanged hands. This event is probably the biggest and most intense O Scale Meet in the States. Over the years more O scale traction has appeared at this meet. The other item to note is I counted the models of at least 5 estates for sale. Two of the estates were traction modelers.

This year's O Scale Meet gave me a chance to meet the new owner of Lou Cross's Right-O-Way (R-O-W) products - Jay Criswell. Talking to Jay was like talking to Lou. Lou did a great job in picking Jay to carry on his work with R-O-W.

Some comments with regard to today's R-O-W products. Jay has a new web site for R-O-W http://www.right-o-way.us/tmAboutUs.php  Do not use the "O Scale Directory" web page link to Lou Cross's R-O-W products.

Jay has started to review and upgrade some of the R-O-W products. An important  item to mention is Jay will be selling both "standard" (5" track gauge) O scale products plus Proto48 items. In the past Lou had spun off the Proto48 track components to Protocraft.

Protocraft will no longer carry Proto48 track components. This means the Proto48 street point and mate mentioned in a prior Post in this Blog will be available from Jay's R-O-W. Obviously this means when you order track components from R-O-W be sure to state "standard O scale" or "Proto48" as part of your order.

Jay has a small number of the points and cover plates castings. If the point and/or cover plate from you point and mate castings is damaged, contact Jay for replacements. I might add - be sure to have your invoice handy to prove the source of your point and mate castings.

I mentioned to Jay the need for a #4 frog casting for code 100 and code 125 rail. Most modelers who have mainline railroad layouts may not need this frog. It's the street/elevated (traction) modelers and modelers with switching layouts who can best benefit from having a #4 frog. If you can use #4 frogs contact Jay to express your need and desire to purchase them.

On a different tack, from comments made to me with regard to using (installing) the point and mate castings, I plan to go into greater detail on installing these castings. As soon as I can future Posts in the Blog will cover the various installations.

Cheers,
Ed