eboricum

Hi All. Thanks for all the info. Called in at a model shop in York today and found they had 1.19mm piano wire, a bit OTT but bought some anyway. One of the staff had just moved from P4 to 7mm and was using Cobalt point motors off of his old layout. He had to 'beef up' the wire so I have attached the motor to an Exactoscale base plate, which I had, and replaced the wire with the 1.19mm. Everything is now working ok so once again thank you all. Allan

Hi Nicktoix. Will check that. The Dapol 08 runs through ok but not tried wagons or the Bachmann brass 04.

Hi Michael. After checking Eileen's it appears they sell .8 or 1mm so I think I'll get a couple of lengths of each to try. Allan

Hi Doilum Thanks for that. I'll check Eileens out. Allan

Hi Doilum. The ply is 6mm birch faced with 3mm cork. Is that inserting 3mm packing in between the motor and baseboard? Allan

Hi Stephen. Now I've removed the motor I think the blades should be ok with the stiffer piano wire. The crossover has two stretchers so it appears I have missed one off also it looks like the joint is coming adrift. (cheap superglue). Perhaps we should all take more photos. Regards Allan

Hi Simon. I've attached a couple of pics of the turnout. As you can see, the 1.5mm flangeway gauge is in place and just holds the opposite rail closed. Forgot to mention that I've gone for 31.5mm track. The second pic shows the Tortoise motor disconnected. Regards Allan

Hi Dave. I think I'll try that before changing motors. Must admit I thought 28thou would be enough but obviously not. Allan

Hi all. I am in the process of building my first O gauge layout, a shunting plank. I only have three turnouts but I have constructed these with C & L chairs, crossing timbers and steel rail and using Templot to design the track plan on a 2.2m baseboard. I had to use A6 turnouts to fit. Three Tortoise motors from a previous EM layout were placed under the baseboard after replacing the steel operating wire, which is around 22thou, with 28thou. JLRT tie bars were soldered to the rail to give a throw of 1.5mm. All was good until I operated the Tortoise. The blades did not throw right over in either direction. All of the turnouts performed in the same way when attached to the tie bar. The only conclusion I have come to is that the steel rail is not bending sufficiently to close the blades and therefore the Tortoise motors are not strong enough to cope. I did use Peco PL10's on a previous EM layout together with an homemade baseplate on which to mount a micro switch and Z spring to take up excessive travel. Not having used Peco motors for 15 years I'm not sure of the throw they give or whether they would overcome the steel rail problem. I would be grateful for any suggestions. Allan