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Hayfields turnout workbench


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Paul

 

It does not need to be too costly, the switch rails are very easy to make and take just a few minuets to make. The common crossings are the difficult ones, or rather the ones that are a bit fiddly. Just follow the process I have shown in the thread and after a couple of false starts you will find it is quite a simple process which is easy to master.

 

Buying the component parts does save quite a lot of money over the price of kits, but needs a bit of effort and is really rewarding once done

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A busy few days, was at Folkstone show with the small C&L stand and managed to build a couple of turnouts in between chatting

 

post-1131-0-77286900-1412716815.jpeg

 

Firstly a large copperclad (C10) turnout in 00 gauge

 

post-1131-0-81592100-1412716826.jpeg

 

And a turnout (B8) with a short length of plain track to connect with a trailing crossover, this one is in EM gauge with ply sleepers. Still a couple of bits to finish including a tiebar.

 

On top of that I am building a work room in the garage, hoping to make it usable in a couple of weeks time as I have a week off.

 

Been with a friend tonight who wanted some feedback on some turnouts he is building, I can see the initial mistakes I made when starting out, mainly wanting to do too much to quickly. Hopefully he will focus on getting the first few working before working on the rest he's started, but great to see someone starting out on building track.

 

One other thing I have been thinking of is some GWR dual gauge (broad and standard gauge) trackwork, initially after talking to Stefan (Knobhead) then seeing some dual gauge track at Scaleforum

 

post-1131-0-13365200-1412717924.jpeg

 

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A selection of photos from one of the stands

 

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post-1131-0-78484400-1412717986.jpeg

 

Nothing as complicated, just a dual gauge turnout with a couple of panels of plain track. 

Edited by hayfield
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And a turnout (B8) with a short length of plain track to connect with a trailing crossover, this one is in EM gauge with ply sleepers. Still a couple of bits to finish including a tiebar.

 

 

Hi Hayfield

 

Nice work there, the duel gauge very impressive.

 

A quick question as I note your B6 built at Folkstone show was with timber sleepers.  As C&L sell laser cut ply sleeper turnout trackbases, what is your view on plastic vs wood and in particular the ones sole by C&L.

 

Paul

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Paul

 

These are my personal thoughts, in some ways the laser cut ply sleepers are easier to use. If you make a mistake let the solvent dry out totally, then slide a sharp blade between the chair and sleeper, most times the chair is re-usable unlike plastic sleepers where the chairs would have to be cut off.

 

My own personal preference is for ply sleepers, and I like the thicker ones but the thinner ones are just as good. I think they look better, but as flexi track is plastic it needs a bit of careful blending of the two differing materials.

 

As for plastic sleepers use the thicker (1.6 mm) ones. I have found that if you build a turnout with the thinner ones and leave it a bit the sleepers tend to curl upwards owing \i think to the solvent being used on one side only. If they are stuck down quickly I believe there is no problem

 

I am a great fan of the Exactoscale turnout timbers, they are 1.6 mm thick and come in a pack of 60 and the longest ones are a decent length. I also prefer the Exactoscale fast track bases, again they are 1.6 mm thick, in addition they are a better height match for Peco points.

 

We did a visual comparison with Peco and C&L track at the weekend with a couple of customers. They were amazed at the difference in appearance, 

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A very busy couple of weeks, starting with Folkstone show for the weekend, then building a new workroom in my garage and last weekend written off with work on Saturday and daughters on the Sunday. Still the second normal turnout with an extra bit of plain track 

 

post-1131-0-43437200-1413406998.jpeg

 

I don't normally make plain track except when there is a short section between turnouts/formations. Needs the second switch rail fitted and switch chairs, all the hard work on this one is now done

 

I must admit I will find a place where I can have a short section of 10 mm ply where I can clamp a piece of rail down to file the vees and switch blades. So much quicker wit the rail clamped down

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Started another trailing crossover and taken a few shots of the start/planning process before laying any rails

 

post-1131-0-51424800-1413875990.jpeg

 

Plan stuck to the building board, common crossings built and checked over the plan and rail breaks marked

 

post-1131-0-81662800-1413876120.jpeg

 

Tracing paper held in place with masking tape and thin strips of double sided tape stuck down

 

post-1131-0-58398800-1413875726.jpeg

 

I had pre-cut the timbers and as you can see I use a straight edge to keep sleepers in line

 

post-1131-0-08212700-1413875743.jpeg

 

As I am using the Exactoscale special chairs, I have marked out the basic ones

 

These links may help those who are either unaware of the special chair range, or undecided on whether to use them.  

 

Link to the switch chairs  http://www.finescale.org.uk/pdfs/RH%20Switches.pdf

 

Link to the common crossing chairs  http://www.finescale.org.uk/pdfs/Common%20Crossings.pdf

 

Link to the diamond and slip chairs  http://www.finescale.org.uk/pdfs/1-7%20Diamond%20&%20Slips.pdf

 

These are not all the instructions as there are another 4 pages

 

Another good page which explains all the chaits and timbers available http://www.finescale.org.uk/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=17  The special chairs are at the bottom of the page

 

All I can say is they are well worth the money

Edited by hayfield
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Ken

 

Its so easy as the double sided tape is 2 or 3 mm wide, plus it must be the worst tack of any make which is what I want, It is just strong enough to stay attached, just peal the paper backing off. If you use decent quality tape and use the full width then you have a small problem, but a soak with white spirit weakens the glue

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Pete

 

Not at the moment, my daughter lives there and we plan to move there within the next 3 years. So I was going to have a shufty at their show. I understand Shenfield is quite an active club. Busy at the moment building a workshop in the garage so the 3rd bedroom can go back to being a bedroom

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Once all the timbers are laid its the common crossing I fit next, with the crossover I fit both at the same time

 

post-1131-0-15083800-1414098629.jpeg

 

Initially I fit the straight roads using solvent ensuring the tip is in line with the plan, by looking from all sides. Then once set I use gauges to set the turnout roads, then the special chairs.

 

post-1131-0-07029200-1414098767_thumb.jpeg

 

Here is a close up of the chairs, there are enough chairs for a 1 in 5, 6, 7, 8 &10

 

Now I thread the stock rails, you can see the  two turnout roads being gauged with each other as well as the check rail chairs

 

post-1131-0-48568500-1414099331.jpeg

 

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Close up view of the check rail chairs

 

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I thread one of the additional switch rail chairs prior to fitting the stock rail

 

 

post-1131-0-70289500-1414099310.jpeg

 

A close up of the additional switch chairs, there are enough chairs to make a left and right hand turnout and both can be either A, B or C switches

 

I have missed taking a photo of a bridge chair which are also used in a standard turnout, will take a photo later to show them

 

I hope this shows those of you who are either unaware or not too familiar of these items. I may use Martin Wynn's Templot plan of a Peco size turnout given a scale make over, just to show what can be achieved

 

These are much better than chopping up standard chairs, pity they are not available in 7 mm scale

Edited by hayfield
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As per the last reply I have attached two photos of bridge chairs, these are for use where the space available is not big enough for either one or two standard chairs

 

post-1131-0-01788800-1414185776.jpeg

 

The bridge chairs are at the start and end of the common crossing, they are also at the end of the switches after the block chairs

 

post-1131-0-51720200-1414185798.jpeg

 

A bit out of focus but shows a square base chair rather than an oblong one, normally about 8 per turnout

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not posted for a few days, been both suffering from man flu and moving my work bench from the 3rd bedroom to my new work room

 

attachment=493317:garage54.jpeg]

 

Most things just put on the shelves not in any real order, that will follow. Also will alter the heights of the shelves once I get more used to the space,

 

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Finishing off the crossover before building another facing crossover but with a single slip separating the two turnouts 

 

post-1131-0-59630000-1415229374.jpeg

 

I must find a way of showing off these details a bit better, still they do look  much better than chopped up standard chairs.

 

I must get round to both fitting the tiebars and the electrical bonding wires

post-1131-0-72189800-1415229336.jpeg

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Next job now on the bench, a facing crossover but with a single slip in between. The initial work has been to work out the rail breaks as there are a few non-standard timbers. Far less cramped in my new room, but not decided on tool and parts storage etc

 

post-1131-0-17761300-1415535633.jpeg

 

First job is to build the 4 common crossings, then cut the timbers. First of all is to do a bit more on the work room, painting and flooring being the next jobs before I can start work on it

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Productive evening, especially as the TV was not too inspiring.

 

post-1131-0-90750800-1415573650.jpeg

 

All 4 common crossings have been made, just need cutting to length

 

post-1131-0-70721000-1415573665.jpeg

 

My usual method of building the turnouts on tracing paper using thin strips of double sided tape to stick the timbers to it. I have also started to write down where the non standard chairs go, rail breaks and isolation cuts are needed

 

Next job is to cut the timbers, but that's for another session.

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post-1131-0-45815100-1415661261.jpeg

 

Most of the timbers have been cut and placed in position. The simple sawing jig is such a time saver for complexes, though also suitable for single turnouts as most sleeper lengths have at least 2 timbers the same length. But as I said saves lots of time when building multiple units.

 

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I have finished cutting the timbers and sleepers tonight

 

post-1131-0-33353700-1415746446.jpeg

 

Nice to have a bit of room with the long building board rather than be squashed up, the common crossings have been glued in placed 

 

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Made a start on fitting the common crossing chairs. Normally when building turnouts this would be a bulk of the work done, but having a slip to build there is plenty to do. First jobs are to finish the turnouts, then on to the slip. I am very tempted to make the bent slip stock rail in 2 pieces, the reason is to get a sharp (I would round it off slightly as per prototype) defined bend without any slight curves after the bend, but I will probably make it in one piece. Still I have a bit of time to decide

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One thing I forgot to mention is how easy it is to make a plain slip in Templot now (Martin please put in a link to your video), Martin has added a silent video showing some very simple steps in building a slip, which simplistically are

 

Click on the size of turnout you require

Another click changes it into a Diamond crossover

You then have to change the timbers into the slip format

Alter the length of some check rails

Finally a small amount of very easy work in making and fitting the slip rails

Job done 

 

I must admit I can only remember how to do it up to altering the timbers and check rails, but then its just a very simple operation to follow the video and copy the simple actions. Not being able to use Templot is just in the mind, once you learn a few simple processes its a very easy program to use in its basic form, which is what 95% of modellers require.

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  • RMweb Gold

One thing I forgot to mention is how easy it is to make a plain slip in Templot now (Martin please put in a link to your video)...

 

...Not being able to use Templot is just in the mind, once you learn a few simple processes its a very easy program to use in its basic form, which is what 95% of modellers require.

 

Thanks John.

 

If you have Templot2 on your computer, the revised single-slip video is here :

 

  http://templot.com/fbr/ladder_single_slip_v2.fbr

 

If you don't have Templot2 you can see the same thing on a web page here:

 

  http://templot.com/companion/index.html?add_slip_roads.htm

 

regards,

 

Martin.

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Goods night modelling, I made the 4 stock rails for the 2 turnouts, notching the rail breaks for etched fishplates. One needed t notches so the chairs between the 2 notches had to be slid on before the second fishplate was soldered on

 

post-1131-0-30596900-1416005672.jpeg

 

The first two are in place and will set overnight

 

post-1131-0-48305500-1416005695.jpeg

 

As you can seethe other two stock rails have their chairs fitted and will be glued on whilst I finish off some carpeting and painting.

 

I have had some aluminium strip for a few weeks, the idea being to make a simple jig to assist in forming the switch blades. If it works I will make something more permanent, more tomorrow as its getting a bit late

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Once I had some time this evening I started on the turnouts, all 4 stock rails in place

 

post-1131-0-97775000-1416092308.jpeg

 

Then I started in making the switch and check rails. The end of the left hand side of the workbench is about 3" wider than the right side. This makes it much easier being right handed to clamp the rails to the end of the larger bench to file the switch blades. You can also see I have started on the bent (rather than curved) slip stock rail. 2 notches have been cut in the rail and cosmetic fishplates will be soldered under them

 

post-1131-0-06839600-1416092369.jpeg

 

Switch and check rails being fitted. Once both turnouts have been built I will start on the slip

 

 

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