My own experience was that the FastTracks jig was the tool I needed to learn the turnout construction techniques. After I had built about a half-dozen using the #6 jig, I moved to a paper template to do a few #4's for an industrial switching area, and they turned out just dandy. I think you will find that after building a half-dozen or so turnouts in the jig, you will have the process down and can move to a paper template for other turnout sizes. It really is all about learning how to do this - the jig makes the process a step-by-step process where you can gain experience with the various elements (forming and soldering the point; forming the stock and point rails; forming and soldering the guard rails, etc.). Once you understand the technique, a paper template and a couple of 3-point track gauges, an NMRA gauge, and good soldering technique is all you really need.
The Point Form tool and Stock Aid tool (for the notch in the stock rails) are both extremely useful. I have a #6 Point Form tool, but by judiciously placing the rail in the jig, I can use it for anything from a #4 to a #8. The Stock Aid tool will work for any kind of turnout. My advice is to buy all these tools, learn the techniques with the jig, then sell the jig but keep the Point Form and Stock Aid tools for other turnout projects.
John C.
+1 What John says
When I started building turnouts back in the mid 1980's (because there weren't any code 55 or code 40 RTR turnouts whatsoever) there was only one article I could find that showed how to make 'em. It was by Gordy Odegard in the April 1978 issue of Model Railroader and involved making your own track gauges, soldering the frogs, but mounting the rails to ties with Goodyear Pliobond by coating the base of the rail, letting it dry, then applying an iron to the top of the rail which heated it and stuck 'em to the wooden ties. I think it was about using code 40 too. I still have the brass three-point gauge I made for job.
Nowadays things are way different and better for anybody wanting to make their own turnouts in N-scale. You've got Fast Tracks, and then you've got Proto87 Stores. There's lots of good free stuff to download from both sites and there are also a lot of forums dealing with hand laying track and turnouts in all scales. There's no lack of information.
However, one of the BIG reasons for laying your own turnouts is to keep the cost down, and when you start buying kits, jigs and fixtures, cast and etched parts and fancy soldering stations, the cost advantage goes away really quickly.
I have to admit that I have been indulging lately in the Proto87 Stores 3-way planed closure points in both code 55 and code 40 along with the closure point hinges. That takes the cost of a turnout for me up to about $15. If I didn't buy those two parts, it'd cost me two bucks per turnout. BUT, those two parts REALLY makes the turnouts look real, and until I can figure out how to make the tri-planed closure points, I'll continue to suck it up and buy the parts.
I finally bought a resistance soldering station, but not for just making turnouts. I do a lot of brass scratchbuilding, so it is invaluable, and also works great when making turnouts. However, I've built hundreds of turnouts using nothing more than my old Archer 35 Watt iron with a wedge tip. Acid-free flux, small diameter solder and making sure the base of the rails and the PCB ties' copper cladding are clean and polished is the trick. I never worry about my solder joints. Marking the metal you don't want solder to either run to or stick to with an HB or #2 pencil keeps solder and solder fillets from making closure points a headache.
Remember to gap both sides of your PCB ties where you have feeders (to prevent phantom shorts) if you solder feeders to them (which is very convenient).
Also, electrically test each and every turnout before installing them. I also gap each frog to make them as short as possible. On #6's, you can get away with dead frogs, especially if you make the wing rails shorter than what the Fast Tracks diagrams show (they're too long and make your turnouts look like narrow gauge HO turnouts...so make 'em shorter). Also, don't bend the hell out of the tips of your guard rails either. Although bent rail guardrails are prototypical, too sharp an angle will catch your flanges. Lots of us make 'em straight but file an angle into the ends of the railheads on the guardrails with no bends. They work just fine, and are appropriate for several prototype's turnouts if you're into that. Additionally, no RTR N-scale turnout does it, so it marks your turnouts as "scratchbuilt" for an observant onlooker.
As for gluing or soldering. I've done both, and I prefer the rail soldered to PCB ties over gluing. That's because my layout is portable and I take it to several shows a year. I want my track and turnouts to be sturdy and I had some bad luck in the past with gluing to wood ties. Oh, the glue worked okay...the ties broke, so the PCB fiberglass ties with rails attached via solder joints works better for me.
One thing that you'll be catching yourself doing is making your complicated switch configurations as a monolithic unit. Almost everybody who figures out how to make their own turnouts does this...making yard leads with one big stock rail running on the outside with no rail joints, or a center siding combination of three turnouts all built at the same time and sharing stock rails with as few joints as possible. It makes for better, smoother, more trouble-free trackwork with fewer feeders if you adhere to the philosophy of attaching a feeder to every single piece of rail.
In the end, for me, there's just something extremely satisfying that brings a big ol' smile to my face when my trains run through my own turnouts that I've hand-built. When your engines and cars glide through your turnouts like a silk ribbon with no swaying or twitching whatsoever...that's a BIG reward in my book!
