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I finally got around to actually shooting some pictures of the latest batch of turnouts I made. On a scale of 1-10 I would give these a 7. There is still a number of little things I would like to improve upon, and it would be nice to find a tidy way to cut the ties ‘ but until then, these do the job!

In review: I built each of these turnouts using the techniques outlined in the Handlaying Turnouts sections of the website, and I posted a few observations from my successes and failures in Turnout Tips.

Here’s some images!

My annual copy of Model Railroad Planning arrived today, and per usual, it had a little of ’something for everyone’. While I enjoy reading all the articles, I was particularly intrigued by Bob Chapman’s piece entitled “Landmark Scenes”. In the article he discussed designing small pikes that we intended for the standard 4′x8′ sheet of plywood ‘ but instead of focusing on cramming an unnecessary amount of track in a small space, he discussed the merits of modeling a single prototypical scene ‘ with vast amounts of compressions ‘ in an effort to create a prototypically interesting model. In the article he offered up two excellent plans for both the Red Rocks on the Delaware & Hudson, and the Keddie Wye of the Western Pacific. (more…)

Taking a break from the soldering iron has allowed me to finish up yet another plan. Like the others, this plan revolves around a central interchange with hidden staging tracks serving as the ‘rest-of-the-word’. The plan is posted in Other Trackplans.

I rendered out one of the candidates for my layout. Really liked this design for its simplicity. Listed in Other Trackplans

Having finished almost all the turnouts for the layout, including one of two curved turnouts, I decided to attach one to a length of track and run a car back and forth through the points to see how they worked. To my disappointment, every time the points were aligned to route the car to the diverging track, the rear set of trucks would ‘pick-the-point’ and hop off the rails. Confused, I carefully ran assorted cars back and forth through the turnout trying to determine what was going wrong.

I discovered that the leading truck of the car would glide smoothly across the points, but as the car moved along the track, the turning of the car meant that the rear trucks angled slightly to the outside rail. The sharp edge of the wheel was actually splitting between the point and the stock rail, despite the fact that the end of the point was razor thin and seated in the notch of the stock rail. I dug out a commercial turnout and realised that area where the point met the stock rail was actually filed out quite deeply, so that the point rail was recessed deeper then the thickness of the point. Solemnly, I took each of the points I had already built and one by one, disassembled the throw bar and painstakingly filed each rail until the point rested properly.

I have added a small, and ongoing, gallery of Other Trackplans that were the result of some of my countless doodles.

Having spent many enjoyable hours doodling ideas for the trackplan, I decided that it would be good to post the rejected designs somewhere. As time allows, I’ll redraw each of my doodles and post them here. All plans are in N scale, and are designed to fit on a hollow core door (34″x80″). Any suggestions for layout designs are always welcome – please leave a comment at the bottom of the page if you have a suggestion.

The Mountain Switchback

Clearly inspired by a plan in Kalmbach’s 101 Trackplans for Model Railroaders this design is a point to point railroad operating between three towns/industries. I envision the scenery heavily wooded, perhaps an Appalachian theme…

Timber Pass

I really liked the simplicity of this design – a single yard nestled in the hills, bordering a small community. The yard would serve as an interchange for the ‘rest of the world’, as represented by the hidden staging yard.

River Interchange

Originally I was quite intrigued about building a layout where the entire landscape was cut in half by a river, and a lone interchange crossing it. A small residential area against the scenic divider, and several bridges was also inspring…

Tehachapi Loop

I never intended to build the Tehachapi Loop, however after reading a Model Railroad Planning article on desinging small layouts with bigger prototypes in mind, I decided that it would be fun to see if you could fit the ‘loop’ on a door. The curves are tight, and the grades are steep – but it fit!

Building a number of assorted turnouts (including several curved turnouts) I’ve developed some additional techniques which improve upon those listed on this site. I have added a page which includes these tips, and I will update it as I discover better ways of doing things.

I realised that although building each of the turnouts separately was advantageous to their construction, the slight inconsistencies in each turnout ‘ variations in angles, lengths etc. actually made it more difficult to assemble on the baseboard, so I opted to combine the switches together and build them as sub assemblies. I combined the two turnouts that make up the crossover as one unit, as well as the two turnouts and the two 90 degree crossings where the main line meets the branch unit. I am also building the curved turnout and siding on the branch line as a single assembly.