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It is worth trying to arrange matters so that the blades assume a "halfway" position when the tiebar is attached so that there is no bias one way or the other on the force required to move the blades.

The blades should be hinged in some way to the tiebar so that the blade tips can rotate and flex slightly when the switch is operated. I have seen some people just soldering switch blades directly to a PCB tiebar but I suspect these will come adrift sometime with the forces involved at the blade tips.

A motor driven point motor like the Tortoise is a lot kinder to pointwork than the solenoid type.

The following articles on RMWeb might be of interest:

I use both flexible and loose heel switches, with no problems (3mm scale, code 60 B/H rail). I'd go along generally with what has been said above; I lay both switch rails in the closed position, with the correct running-rail path for each, so that when moved in a bit and attached to the tie bar there's no bias either way.

The tie-bar's a piece of upside down gaped pcb with a couple of holes drilled in appropriate positions, small brass pins pushed through the holes from the bottom, bent over 90 degrees then soldered along the bottom of the inner side of the rail. I suspect there's something better to use than PCB as the copper bit isn't needed and requires gaping, but I can't think what.

Point motors are Tortoise. I did decide recently to try servos and ordered some kit from The Bouncer, but haven't had anything back; anyone any experiences in this direction?

Here's another method which might interest you - with the tiebar underneath the track base. This method is quite popular with a good few people.

In this case I've soldered short pieces of brass strip to the underside of the blades and these strips extend under the stock rails to keep the switch blades vertically aligned to the stock rails.

25_120245_030000000.jpg



The TOU is made from Plastikard strip,  a bit of 4mm PCB turnout timbering and some brass tube to be not too tight a fit on the brass wire.   The lot is glued to a short bit of B&Q alloy section to allow mounting to the track base.   The tube and wire gives the hinge action.

This method allows you to fit scale cosmetic tiebars.


Jim.

Jim Guthrie wrote:

25_120245_030000000.jpg



The TOU is made from Plastikard strip,  a bit of 4mm PCB turnout timbering and some brass tube to be not too tight a fit on the brass wire.   The lot is glued to a short bit of B&Q alloy section to allow mounting to the track base.   The tube and wire gives the hinge action.

This method allows you to fit scale cosmetic tiebars.


Jim.

I can't see it in the picture but a cut across the PCB copper would isolate the switch blades from each other.

Spot the obvious mistake.   This was the first TOU built to prove out the system before applying it to the layout and I hadn't yet cut the copper layer between the two tubes controlling the switch blades. These TOUs are actually used with tube in wire operation.  The alloy section from B&Q is a "U" section - you can just see the bottom face of the "U" section in the picture.  On this part is mounted a crank with a slot on one of its arms to engage the third bit of pipe on the PCB strip. 25_120602_100000000.jpg Here's a shot of the bit of hacked about "U" section.  The slots are for the two holding screws and allow the lateral adjustment of the TOU.  The other side of the "U" is cut back to allow easy access to the holding screw heads and this provides a platform for the operating crank.   The crank pivots on an 8 or 10BA screw in a tapped hole in the alloy.   There is just enough meat in the alloy section to allow tapping and a lock nut is used to fix the screw in position. Jim.

Here's another method which might interest you - with the tiebar underneath the track base. This method is quite popular with a good few people.

The following articles on RMWeb might be of interest:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=42746

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37908&start=25

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=46997

In an earlier reply I asked if this worked with a Tortoise point motor, on closer examination it seems this set up is designed for a wire and tube operation. So that was a rather silly question.
I will have too many widely spread apart turnouts to adopt this approach.

One question does arise and that is why you found it necessary to cut insulating gaps just below the V in the wing rails of the turnout in the first link.

Secondly how did you anchor the nickel silver wire when you changed from the Peco track pins on the tiebar for the three way turnout. The Peco pin had a head which would have held it in place, the wire didn't seem to have anything which would serve the same purpose.

Also I have been searching high and low for 3 point gauges suitable for Peco code 80 track, would yours suit and if so where did you get them? I am using Peco code 80 track because I have boxes of it accumulated from various sources over many years, actually enough to do my whole anticipated layout, and don't intend to change from that. None of the 3 point gauges I have found on the net seem to be appropriate for code 80.

ken

Ken

Here's a picture of the same idea but with a Tortoise motor driving the sub-trackbase tiebar.

25_130526_430000000.jpg

This is for a Scale7 layout so is a bit chunkier than the N scale version.  In this case the Tortoise drives straight on to the tiebar,  but there are many other ways of connecting the Tortoise to the tiebar which might better suit your purposes.

There's also the normal health warning when using Tortoise motors - they are big.  The above setup is just under four inches tall - from the edge connector on the motor to the surface which mounts on the underside of the track base.  So you would need quite deep baseboards to accommodate this arrangement.  But you can make,  or purchase,  right angle mounts to hold the motor on its side which reduces the sub-track base depth. 

I also built another Scale7 layout some years ago where the Tortoise motors were mounted on their sides on a board at the back of the layout and light alloy tube (again from B&Q) was used to connect to the sub base tiebars.    The mounting board for the Tortoises was set a bit below the track base level and the Tortoises were placed on top of this so the linkage lined up with the sub-base tiebars and the bulk of the Tortoise motors was projecting into the space above the track bases and was hidden behind scenery/backscenes.

There are other "slow motion" point motors which are much lower profile than the Tortoise and you might want to investigate them if you are pushed for space to fit Tortoises.

Jim.

There are other "slow motion" point motors which are much lower profile than the Tortoise and you might want to investigate them if you are pushed for space to fit Tortoises

Kenneth Beckett wrote:

One question does arise and that is why you found it necessary to cut insulating gaps just below the V in the wing rails of the turnout in the first link.

Secondly how did you anchor the nickel silver wire when you changed from the Peco track pins on the tiebar for the three way turnout. The Peco pin had a head which would have held it in place, the wire didn't seem to have anything which would serve the same purpose.

Also I have been searching high and low for 3 point gauges suitable for Peco code 80 track, would yours suit and if so where did you get them? I am using Peco code 80 track because I have boxes of it accumulated from various sources over many years, actually enough to do my whole anticipated layout, and don't intend to change from that. None of the 3 point gauges I have found on the net seem to be appropriate for code 80.

ken

To answer each each question in turn:

1. Cutting the insulating gaps as illustrated results in the switches being insulated from each other (reducing the possibility of shortcircuits) and from the vee. Each switch is connected electrically to its corresponding stock rail so does not depend on the switch contacting the stock rail to work. The polarity of the vee is controlled by a DPDT electrical switch.

2. Instead of the head of the pin, the new pin relies on the small 90degree bend. See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=46997#p735929 which shows the new pin in the same orientation as the Peco pin on the right.

3.The three point gauge is made by Micro Engineering. Mine are code 55 ones but a quick check against some Peco Code 80 track suggests they would suit nicely. I bought mine from here: http://www.handlaidtrack.com/tools-supplies-track-gauges-c-9_37.php and would thoroughly recommend their service. Also bought my 0.5mm solder from them. You might also like to consider the following: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=51055

One thing I cannot stress enough is that you need good quality templates to the standards you intend to build to. If you intend to use Templot be aware that Templot does not plot the outside edge of the flatbottom rail which makes location of the rail difficult. Martin does have a workaround which a search of this forum should find.

By shear fluke whilst browsing the other day I discovered an interesting NEM specification under 310/311 (http://www.morop.org/de/normes/nem310-311_d_bbl2.pdf). Close examination of the specification revealed this is exactly what I was after. Reading the small print I realised this was a product made by Tillig under part number 08961.

If you intend to use Templot be aware that Templot does not plot the outside edge of the flatbottom rail which makes location of the rail difficult. Martin does have a workaround which a search of this forum should find.

3.The three point gauge is made by Micro Engineering. Mine are code 55 ones but a quick check against some Peco Code 80 track suggests they would suit nicely. I bought mine from here: http://www.handlaidtrack.com/tools-supplies-track-gauges-c-9_37.php and would thoroughly recommend their service. Also bought my 0.5mm solder from them. You might also like to consider the following: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=51055

They are very similar to the NMRA gauge in use and do come with extensive instructions showing all aspects of the gauges use.

if you received an English version of the instructions.

if you received an English version of the instructions.

No, mine are German as well however I was able to work it out from the copious diagrams.

The photos in http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=51055 show the major functions.