Using the easy-assembly Finetrax pointwork kits in 00 and EM (and in P4 from the S4 Society)

[martin_wynne]

16 minutes ago, BWsTrains said:

Now I'm confused.

 

I thought the A and B in A5 B7 of these Turnouts and Slips referred to switch size as per this table:

 

https://85a.uk/templot/companion/real_track.php

 

If you change the Switch Size in Templot using "Template" then "Switch Settings" an A5 is extended when you change it to B5. Isn't that what The Fatadder is asking about? What am I missing here?

 

Hi,

 

That is referring to turnouts.

 

The present discussion is about slips.

 

For diamond-crossings and slips, the overall size is controlled by just 2 things -- the crossing angle and the track gauge. The type of switch used within a slip does not change its overall size. It changes the internal radius of the slip road, and the space available for the K-crossing check rails, but it does not change the overall size of the slip.

 

That becomes obvious when you remember that a slip is simply a modified diamond-crossing. A diamond-crossing does not have a switch of any type or size.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

[Dominion]

Sorry Martin, Templot is a wonderful resource. 

Tom

[hayfield]

4 hours ago, Dominion said:

Big locos certainly look good and run well through the Finetrax 1:7 slips. I believe in Templot t for a double slip the blade tips start one further timber towards the centre to allow space and clearance for soldering to the tie bar arrangement and for flange clearance. Single slips could be one timber closer to the V crossings, and that maybe the default for a single in Templot. Wayne’s singles use the same spacing as the doubles. Initially I was wondering if it was worth extending the blades on the singles somehow, but the only solution would have been to do a lot of butchery or start from scratch and Wayne’s just are too good for that :-)

 

3 hours ago, Dominion said:

Sorry Martin, Templot is a wonderful resource. 

Tom

 

 

Tom

 

Its very easy to get terminology wrong, I seem to do it all the time. Likewise we are always talking about switch and crossing angles when we talk about turnouts, so its an easy mistake to include it into the conversation  about slips. Then when you get erstwhile sources talk about points, when in reality they are talking about turnouts. Lets face it when I was young turnouts purporting to be scale were classified in Radii not sizes. But I guess at times in various subjects we all fall into similar traps

 

The problem lies in RTR turnouts where the tip of the blades terminate between timbers, which is totally non prototypical. The problem is that even manufacturers at times get it wrong, I brought/was supplied a timber Diamond fret described as EM/P4. Simply it cannot be both as Martin explained. Certainly for EM gauge it was too long if you wanted both Vees supported on timbers.

 

I think sometimes the more we learn about a subject we realise the less we know.

 

Wayne has done a super job with his kits and as you say they work very well. I don't recognize Templot moving the length of switch blades, but I guess this may be something some modellers do to make life easier. Flangeway clearances are usually set by the modeller with most setting them to gauge requirements rather than to scale 

 

Thanks for contributing, that's how we learn from each other

[Captain Kernow]

On 10/04/2024 at 13:49, Nick C said:

Do you glue those on? I tried using them  on mine and found it really difficult to get them to stay in place - this might of course be down to my ham-fistedness, but I ended up breaking or losing several...

 

Alternatively can anyone recommend any other insulating fishplates that might be easier to use for code 75 Bullhead? The Peco Bullhead ones are good for conducting joints, but they don't do an insulating version...

What I do, when I sometimes find the whole process too fiddly (or have forgotten to add the Exactoscale plastic fishplates) is to cut them in half (down the inside webbing) and simply epoxy each half to the rail webbing, either side of the rail break. Best to abrade the rail webbing first, if possible. I normally use a small amount of epoxy for this and it seems to work well.

 

[woodcroft]

If the temperature changes much where your track is you may experience expansion/contraction at the joints depending on the length of rail. If so just glue the fishplates to one rail only or they may come unstuck. We found this by experience building a layout in a club room then going to exhibitions where it can get very hot!

[roythebus1]

The original MRC's 00 layout, the Longridge, Brampton Sands and Calshot Railway had an odd track system designed by a Mr. Fleetwood-Shaw (known as sheetwood floor). It was the equivalent of laser-cut plywood sleeper bases, probably punched from thin ply, with rails held on every so often with some sort of clips. It wasn't fixed down except at the ends of baseboards. At one exhibition at the Central Hall in the late 1970s the BBC turned up to do some filming. the heat of their lights made the track expand so much it rose above platform level and made train operation impossible! Luckily it was the last showing of that layout. The replacement had track fixed securely.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, roythebus1 said:

The original MRC's 00 layout, the Longridge, Brampton Sands and Calshot Railway had an odd track system designed by a Mr. Fleetwood-Shaw (known as sheetwood floor). It was the equivalent of laser-cut plywood sleeper bases, probably punched from thin ply, with rails held on every so often with some sort of clips. It wasn't fixed down except at the ends of baseboards. At one exhibition at the Central Hall in the late 1970s the BBC turned up to do some filming. the heat of their lights made the track expand so much it rose above platform level and made train operation impossible! Luckily it was the last showing of that layout. The replacement had track fixed securely.

That layout is one I remember from the first Central Hall show I went to, in 1966. I'd never seen, or imagined, such a big layout before!