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A quick stub point

Ian Simpson

Entry posted by Ian Simpson

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It took a while for the early railway companies to decide on the best design for points / switches / turnouts. Personally I've always liked the "stub point" design in which the running rails move to set the road, rather than the typical blades. Perhaps it's a design for sleepy sidings rather than high speed main lines:

1285783281_Stubpoint01.jpeg.62f112bbcedebd3f4af3a85e5bb3e40c.jpeg

 

A broken PECO streamline point seemed an ideal starting point to add a stub point to the layout:

1878355975_Tinoriesstubpoint01.jpg.22472817ca0fe94e6ff0ffa573148825.jpg

 

Pulling off the blades was therapeutic for the eight seconds it took, and cutting through the running rails was quick and easy with a mini-tool. It's actually a rotary tool used by nail technicians to work on nail extensions. I bought it for around £7 on eBay, and it's been an excellent buy. I hoped a tool designed for work on delicate fingers would be useful for delicate modelling work, and it does have very manageable slow lower speeds. It's the first tool I've had that actually lets me cut and grind rails accurately. I wouldn't want to cut through massive sheets of brass with it, but it's perfect for softer materials.

 

1326095634_Tinoriesstubpoint02.jpg.d4f1446230bbd8794f2e61ce6d9f7154.jpg

 

The last few inches of the track before the stub point aren't glued to the baseboard so the flexible track can move from side to side to match up with each road:

602370206_Tinoriesstubpoint03.jpg.283874efa2ee802ea03b72c1ef59217a.jpg

 

538664644_Tinoriesstubpoint04.jpg.0fa2e1ea379ed482f4bcbc84036272fb.jpg

 

Control is by a coffer stirrer super-glued to the front sleeper of the flexitrack. I haven't decided whether to power the sidings or use rope shunting, so I'll probably do both. 

The clearances do look as if they were inspired by Triang Series 3 track. Leaving a couple of centimetres of the blades superglued to the sleepers would produce a more realistic model with less flexitrack movement and smaller gaps between the rails. 

 

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Pacific231G

Very nice Ian

Apparently, the reason stub switches lasted for so much longer in N. America was because they weren't prone to getting blocked by snow (though extreme expansion in hot weather could be a problem. Their limitation was, as you say, that they were not good with high speeds or heavy axle loadings. They were used on some narrow gauge RRs in the USA until quite late but I don't know how late they were used industrially in the UK. 

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Compound2632
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I should think maintining the operating linkage to keep adequate alignment became an issue too. How are you doing that?

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Nearholmer

With a two-position stub, all you need is a stop of on the outer side of each fixed rail to obtain alignment.

 

They remained in use on some industrial NG lines, notably those using double-flanged wheels, until those systems closed in the 1960s. There might even be the odd bit left in a slate slab works now. For double-flanged wheels they have a pivoting rail instead of a crossing, which makes any linkage more complicated.

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Ian Simpson
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1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

I should think maintining the operating linkage to keep adequate alignment became an issue too. How are you doing that?

 

Many thanks, @Compound2632, that's an excellent question.

@Nearholmer has described the basic principle.  I was thinking of gluing a stiff piece of wire of the outside of the outer point rails, or perhaps a panel pin on each side of the throw to stop the flexitrack travelling too far.  I've tried to glue the last few centimetres of the fixed portion of the flexitrack in such a way that the end comes to rest in position for the left-hand turning when the coffee stirrer is released. If (or more likely when) this starts moving out of alignment I'll probably try a discreet spring behind the end of the flexitrack pushing it into this position. 

Edited by Ian Simpson
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Pacific231G

I've been looking at some photos of stub switches on D&RG RR and on simple turnouts the moving rails  slide on plates that limit the travel with the tie bar assuring the alignment of the opposite rail. At any rate that's what I think I'm seeing but the images are here.  

http://www.drgw.net/info/StubSwitch. 

 

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Ian Simpson
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Thanks, @Pacific231G. That's a great website (although I was shocked at my geekiness when I realised I went to the Paperwork section first).

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Ian Simpson
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By the way, here's one I made earlier:

832343440_TheBigLayout-turntable.jpg.332ac7e5610ab4c15fabce0a2b318ac7.jpg

The turntable is a CD disc that rotates through 180 degrees - actually a bit more, it's a cam arrangement - using the coffee stirrer in the bottom right of the picture. Wiring is just two wires running up through the baseboard and soldered (it was made in the days when I was still willing to engage with this dark art) under the rails. 

The ballast is chinchilla dust.

The sidings are rope shunted using the bollard (a push pin) to the right of the turntable.

Edited by Ian Simpson
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Pacific231G
3 hours ago, Ian Simpson said:

Thanks, @Pacific231G. That's a great website (although I was shocked at my geekiness when I realised I went to the Paperwork section first).

Don't worry. I just spent an hour trying to figure out which end of French mixed trains the passenger carriages were marshalled. The answer was that it all depends though I assume that in Britain, with our strange affection for unfitted-loose coupled wagons, they were always next to the engine.  

Edited by Pacific231G
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Ian Simpson
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23 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

... I assume that in Britain, with our strange affection for unfitted-loose coupled wagons, they were always next to the engine.  

Every photo of a British / Irish mixed train I've seen has the coach(es) next to the loco.

But I tend to be interested in standard gauge / broad gauge branches and light railways. Heaven only knows what they were doing on some of the NG lines ...

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Compound2632
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1 hour ago, Ian Simpson said:

Every photo of a British / Irish mixed train I've seen has the coach(es) next to the loco.

But I tend to be interested in standard gauge / broad gauge branches and light railways. Heaven only knows what they were doing on some of the NG lines ...

 

There are plenty of photographs of Lynton & Barnstaple mixed trains with goods wagons including open 4-wheelers loaded with coal marshalled next to the engine - probably for convenience in shunting them off at intermediate stations. But all the L&B goods stock had continuous brakes or at least through pipes.

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Florence Locomotive Works
On 01/07/2020 at 13:57, Ian Simpson said:

Seeing you've just been side-tracked by Sparkshot's wonderful broad gauge models, Douglas, I'm surprised you made it here as quickly as you did!

Really looking forward to following your experiences with Brunel's Big Gauge locos.

 

Just saw this post, sorry again for the lateness. I to, am looking forward to my experiences with Brunel's great engines. And, signals, tunnels, telegraphs etc. Speaking of which I need to go and paint some telegraph poles.

Edited by Florence Locomotive Works
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