Trevor Nunn had this problem on Wicken, in S scale, back in the early 70s. He was using ply and rivet track, and simply cut the switch blades between the first and second rivets, and soldered in a bonding wire for electrical purposes. It worked fine, and there is no reason why something similar would not work for you, but do not put too much tension in the spring, as this will simply move your problem on one step.

HTH.

Simon

I know you looked at my set up but I didn't meet you for it to be explained and there are parts that are neither visible or obvious so here goes: I've used an Easitrac check chair for my loose heel switches. This spaces the rail perfectly at the heel. It remains to be seen how robust they are long term but I'm taking my chances - I can always fix it later! I feed the switch rails from the L shaped operating wires that are soldered to the underside of the toe. As you have identified these need to be fairly robust. These are connected to a copper clad sleeper strip tie bar that is gapped with dropper wires on the ends of it directly connected to the dropper wires from the adjacent rail. There is a pin or wire link from the sleeper strip to the telescoping brass limiters and thence by an omega/bent wire to the operating switch. If I were to do it again I would combine the sleeper strip part and the limiters in a neater unit.

Thank you all for the replies. The 3 way is progressing well and the time for fitting the switch rails draws nearer....