Photo Etched Turnout Details: N Scale Code 40 No. 10 Turnout

[ednadolski]

Here are some pics of the rail going into place.   A lot of the filing and shaping is very similar to conventional hand-built turnout construction.  What I do differently here is to completely tin the entire underside of the rail base.  I then apply a tiny touch of flux at each tieplate along the rail path on the fret, place the rail in position along the raised shoulders/guides on each tieplate, hold the rail in place with a tweezers, and then touch the tip of the soldering iron in place along the rail long enough to flow the tinned solder and bond the rail into place.

The soldering part of the process goes fairly quick, as once you heat up a section of rail, it raises the temp of the rail enough so that as you move the iron along it just needs to heat up that small additional next bit of the rail.  I pause the iron for a few seconds to make sure the solder melts, then move along to the next tieplate.

I really like the way the tieplate shoulders act as a guide for the rail, and they are actually quite accurate.  I do of course also check with an NMRA gauge to make sure, but have had to do very little in the way of making adjustments.  In some ways I find it preferable to working with conventional PCB ties.

In this case I did build the frog in place from filed rail, tho there really isn't anything dramatically different to the process over using PCB ties.  I usually build the frog rails a bit past their (theoretical) convergence point, and file them back to the correct lines before installing the wing/closure rails.  This was another area where I think the tieplate guides actually helped making the frog as accurate as I can.

Once all the rail is in place, I plan to paint it and then secure it to the wood ties with Pliobond.  Adding spikes will follow after that, tho that's more of a cosmetic step (I hope I have enough spikes on hand.... I may need to order more, or try making my own).   But that's the stuff of a future post.



Here are the frog and stock rails going into place:




Forming the frog point:




Adding the closure/wing rails for the diverging route.  The etched tieplate guides take a lot of the guesswork out of positioning here:




Test truck running thru the straight route.  The gauge came out pretty accurate here.




Second wing/closure rail in place, and some cleanup for the frog:







Diverging route stock rail:




Higher angle view, rail completed except for the points:




Guard rails into place:




Test fitting the point rails.  Note that I use 1/2 a rail joiner to hinge each heel, and these RJs were soldered into place at the end of the closure rails before I installed the closure rails onto the fret.  (Another case where the fret was handy in figuring out the right length of the closure rails.) I did end up removing the tie plates underneath the joiners, or they would have stuck up too much.   Also note, I do file away the base of the stock rails where the points will be.  Even tho that's not prototypical, I think in N scale it is barely noticeable.

No throwbar yet, that will come after things are installed onto the ties.  I also plan to solder a small, flexible wire underneath each point rail, to ensure electrical conductivity.




Cheers,
Ed

[svedblen]

Very nice!

[gregamer]

It’s looking super awesome Ed.

[ednadolski]

... do you mind sharing what the etching cost to have made?

Found my invoice.... looks like this was 79 GBP (setup + 2 sheets + shipping to USA).

Ed

[ednadolski]

Time for some updated project pics.  As a precursor to installation over the ties, I first spray-painted the fret/rail assembly with some Tamiya primer and then airbrushed with a custom mix of Model Master Burnt Umber and Dark Grey.  I also did a light dabbing of a few colors of weathering powders to help provide some texture and reduce the 'solid color' effect.  Doing it at this point eliminates having to mask off the ties.  I have also the feed wires soldered into place at this point.






Some test fitting of the assembly over the ties, before applying the Pliobond. The ties are glued with CA onto a very thin sheet of 0.005" styrene, which I intend to just leave in place when the turnout is installed on the layout.  (It will be buried under the ballast, and spikes should simply go right thru the styrene.)   I've also done some additional sanding/stressing/staining on the ties, so they won't need much more in the way off attention.






Here the turnout is glued into place and I have started to trim away the fret.  This is the first time I've built track with Pliobond, tho it seems the gluing process is not all that different from how one would do a conventional rail installation.  I apply a fine bead of the Pliobond on the underside of all rail/tieplates, position the assembly over the ties, and then press into place. Afterwards I reduce the temp. of my soldering station to about 400F so that I don't re-flow any solder, and then heat the rail from the center out towards the ends in order to cure the adhesive and make a strong bond.  As with soldering the rail, I found that very little is needed in the way of subsequent adjustment in order to ensure a proper fit to the track gauge.

Note at the point rails are not yet installed so I do not have to worry about accidentally gluing them immoveably into place.

Removing the fret is a matter of gently cutting thru the tags with a sharp hobby blade, trying not to score the ties too much.  Since the tags are half-etched nickel-silver this is pretty straightforward to do, and makes for minimal paint touch-up later.








Moving on to the points. These are made from rail the usual way (a very slight bend about 1/3 the way from the toe, grind away from the back side to taper the rail and get rid of the rail base, then hand-file a bit of a chamfer and round-over).  Point rails are then trimmed to length and soldered to a feeder wire from underneath, so as not to rely on the rail joiner hinges or contact with the stock rails for electrical conductivity.

Throwbar is a standard PCB tie (the only PCB tie on the whole turnout) filed for a wider gap and with two #80 holes drilled for the PB wire that will attach to the point rails.  The PB wire is made with two compound 90-degree bends and trimmed to size.  Here I am soldering the wire to the throwbar, which creates a rigid structure, but if you wanted them to pivot then it is a simple matter to make the wire a little longer and bend it 90-degrees from below to keep them in place at the throwbar (which does require a little extra clearance underneath the throwbar).






Finally some pics all touched up and ready for installation, gapping, and a few final details:












Thanks for looking!   

Ed

[svedblen]

Looks like that turnout went together rather easy, and with a very god looking end result. Congrats, both on a succesful method and the look of the finished turnout.

The tie plates are quite visible. More so than on the track test piece you showed earlier and where you brush painted the plates in situ. Or is that only an illusion?

Any additional hardware on the frets that you will add? It looks good enough as is. Just wondering.

[Angus Shops]

That’s a thing of beauty. It’s hard to imagine that it’s N scale. If I might suggest some very slight variation in the colour of some of the ties…
I looked back through the thread for some mention of what you plan to use these for. If you’ve got a layout in mind it’s going to pretty special.

[ednadolski]

Thanks guys for looking and for your kind words.   @svedblen you are right, the overall assembly was really not much (any?)  harder than a conventional hand-built turnout.  (Still haven't gotten to the spiking part, which is not hard but will take a little time. OTOH, after seeing how it looks so far, spiking seems sort of optional: the etched HO spikes might come out looking a bit oversized, however, closer to scale spikes could be pretty hard to see.)

The rail filing and frog construction probably took the most time. If I had to do a lot of these then I might consider the Fast Tracks frog/point forming tools, tho the good old belt grinder did just fine for me here too.

The ties here were painted a bit differently than the sample.  I wanted to go toward a more grey tone for a bit better contrast with the metal parts.  @Angus Shops it should be pretty easy to add color variations with a few washes of thin paint or (very thin) India ink  (better to do before adding ballast tho).   I do have this destination layout in mind, to replace the Atlas C55 #10.  I will need one more turnout for that one, so time to get started...

I still haven't decided on how I will want to actuate the points.  For this kind of layout, a manual throw seems most appropriate, tho the existing kinds all are (necessarily) oversized and have a rather excessive travel distance.  I do intend to use the Frog Juicer to power the frog rails, since they are going to be relatively long.

Ed

[ednadolski]

Just a quick pic, getting some materials ready to put together the next couple of turnouts  (2 LH and one more RH):



I expect this will should go quicker, now that I have a better idea of what the process is like.

Cheers,
Ed

[ednadolski]

I've been working on this lately in a bit of an off-again-and-back-on-again mode, but here is the next batch of three turnouts, with all the non-moving rail installed.   Just some final looking over and cleanup, and these will be ready for paint.

I don't find this part to be much different than building turnouts with traditional PCB ties.  The rail filing and shaping is pretty much the same.   I think the tieplate guides do help help it to go together a bit more quickly and accurately.  Just like traditional methods, it gets easier and quicker the more you do it.

(Of course, you don't have the step of gapping the PCB ties, and trying to disguise them later on )




Cheers,
Ed

[gregamer]

Great system Ed. I’ve wished for exactly the same thing in HO and O scale.

[JeffB]

Gorgeous turnouts Ed...  Very nicely done!

Jeff

[ednadolski]

I’ve wished for exactly the same thing in HO and O scale.

@gregamer I did try etched tieplates in O scale, but for that size I thought they looked too flat.

With HO scale, I think you'd have to hand-spike everything for it to look complete.   But at that level of detail it becomes almost obligatory to go to Proto:87 


(In those scales, the required area for etches goes up dramatically, and the costs will track it )


Ed

[ednadolski]

<cross-link alert>

Started installation of the first turnout on the NPPX. Some additional pix/video here: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=52093.msg719315#msg719315



Ed

[Bob]

Ed - this is really spectacular.  Just read the entire thread - very, very impressive work.  Congratulations!  Bob