As requested by Phil, a few notes on how I make tie-bars. I'll try and cover the current TOUs later, my previous version made from plastruct was described here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/186/entry-8263-making-tous-turnout-operating-units/

The visible tie-bars are made from a couple of pieces of scrap etc roughly .75mm tall and a tiny piece of thin paxolin. Mine originally came from Eileen and judging by the price label which says 70p I suspect it is quite old! I have made a simple jig using two short lengths of rectangular tube each of which has a saw cut across it to hold the brass strip.

The brass strip is bent to a right angle giving a short side about 3-4mm long. These are then held in the jig with the paxolin between the ends.

When soldering up the important thing is to get the two bit of brass opposite each other and in the same plane in both directions, i.e. get them so they line up and are straight.

Now comes the fun bit -carefully trim the paxolin away and then very gently file so you are just left with the small tab formed by the two short right angle bends. you have to take this slowly and make sure that you end up with nothing metallic accidentally bridging the insulation gab in the paxolin. You can just see a dark stripe around the join in the photo which is the fibre-glass layer in the copper clad paxolin.

Always test each one with a meter before trying to install!

I fasten mine onto the rails by using a loop of .45 wire bend back on itself into a U shape and made to look like a hand-written 'f' (without the cross stroke) in the opposite plane. This sits with one side of the U either side of the tie-bar and the top of the 'f' resting on the foot of the switch rail. A tiny blob of solder does the rest. It is wise to put something that won't solder (oil drenched fag paper) between the switch and stock rail while you do this.

In this picture you can also see the thicker brass rod that is solder to the switch rail and goes down to the functional tie-bar (known as a Turnout Operating Unit or TOU).

Hope this helps somebody. I'm sure there are probably more accurate representations out there but this is what works for me.

David