Fast Track investment question?

[chuck geiger]

How much will you put into the system? Will it pay for itself
for the average of 15-20 turnouts on a layout? Is it complete
or is there extra charges for ties, the rail sander, turnout
template, PC ties, etc. Thanks for the help, saw them on
Reality Reduced and I know the system has been championed
a lot here. I'm guessing for the investment, you could buy
the same number of #10 Atlas C-55 TO's. Daryl says it
reduced the price on over 100 To's he needs to build to
$4. That works. But I'm thinking Hello Chuck!

From Daryl:

Fast Tracks turnout assembly fixtures have always intrigued me as a way to effectively and quickly build N scale code 55 turnouts.  However, the high cost of the assembly fixtures and related tools, plus already possessing experience hand laying code 55 turnouts without the assembly fixtures made the assembly fixtures a hard sell.

[Chris333]

All depends on what you buy and what you do with it 

I have a C55 #5 jig and point form tool from them. I don't buy the quickstick laser ties for under them because I usually add a few extra PC ties and it is easy to just slide in stripwood. I figured any layouts I would build would be small so that is why I picked a #5 jig.

I have a bunch of PC ties from them HO,N, and Z scale.

You can make up a wish list of what you'd order and figure out what it would cost to buy good pre-made turnouts, but the FT turnouts you make will be smother than anything you could buy.

The other turnouts I build over templates still use FT PC ties. And if you are gonna build a whole bunch of the same turnout over the templates you might want to get the point form tool.

A million ways you could go...

[chuck geiger]

Thanks Chris, good points - I guess you need the point form tool and the sanding/filing jig.

[wcfn100]

If you haven't tried building one by hand yet, then I would start there.  Working with c55 is pretty easy and templates are available to work over for most common turnouts.

And in my opinion, neither the Pointform or Frog Helper create ideal cross sections, especially for the point rails.  You can make better pieces by hand with the proper steps.


Jason

[Ian MacMillan]

I bought some years ago for HO and they paid themselves off in a month. I will eventually try traditionally handlaying a turnout down the road.

[Sokramiketes]

If you haven't tried building one by hand yet, then I would start there.  Working with c55 is pretty easy and templates are available to work over for most common turnouts.

And in my opinion, neither the Pointform or Frog Helper create ideal cross sections, especially for the point rails.  You can make better pieces by hand with the proper steps.


Jason

Really?  I think the filing jigs are even better than the assembly jigs, at least as far as saving time on turnout construction.  Filing takes the most time and they cut that time down by a lot.

[bicknell]

How much will you put into the system? Will it pay for itself
for the average of 15-20 turnouts on a layout? Is it complete
or is there extra charges for ties, the rail sander, turnout
template, PC ties, etc. Thanks for the help, saw them on
Reality Reduced and I know the system has been championed
a lot here. I'm guessing for the investment, you could buy
the same number of #10 Atlas C-55 TO's. Daryl says it
reduced the price on over 100 To's he needs to build to
$4. That works. But I'm thinking Hello Chuck!

Everything is a la carte; you buy the jigs, rail, ties, etc separately.  They do have some starter kits to help get you going.

If your primary concern is cost, I'm hard pressed to recommend the system.  It takes a lot of turnouts to make them cheaper than Atlas (I'd say closer to 40-50, time you include tools and such), and that's still predicated on needing only one size turnout.

I do think they look much better when finished.  I also think they operate much better when finished.  If you're in odd situations (e.g. need a really compact turnout ladder or something) it's easier to do that as you build than trying to hack-up premade stuff.  I also like long turnouts, I'm using #12's for my current project.

Anyway, you want to go to http://www.handlaidtrack.com/ and view the videos and read the discussion board before making a final decision.

[Ian MacMillan]

I think it could be faster cost "savings" than that. About 10 turnouts covers your cost of the template, and at around 10 turnouts I was banging them out in about 15-20 min. So I figured that at around around #15+ I was making out pretty well.

*Results may vary

[wm3798]

I agree with Ian.  Speed is the key variable.  I'm going to take a spin on some raw scratchbuilt turnouts in the near future, and I know it will take a lot longer than using the jig.  But what I want to do will be less than 5 or 6 pieces, each one being slightly different, and all configured for street running.  So the jig won't be of much use to me.

I've also pretty much resigned myself to keeping the code 80 yard I have intact for the foreseeable future, so the need to build a yard ladder and what not in c55 is on the way-back burner.

Lee

[wcfn100]

Really?  I think the filing jigs are even better than the assembly jigs, at least as far as saving time on turnout construction.  Filing takes the most time and they cut that time down by a lot.

There's no argument to whether they are faster or easier. But in my opinion, they don't necessarily yield the best final product.

If you've already purchased the point and frog tools, and are satisfied with the results, then no worries.  But for those who may choose to do it by hand because of cost or other reasons, there are other techniques to make these parts and, in my opinion, make them better.

Jason