Piano Wire Springs for Turnouts

[chuck geiger]

Has anyone built these, the piano wire springs with the slight bends and applied to two holes on throw bar and next tie? Can they be added after the turnout has been glued down?

[Philip H]

I tried a couple, but my wire was too thick.  You can add them to installed turnouts by just drilling out the appropriate holes - but only so long as there is no ballast or anything under the throwbar to inhibit moving.

[Wolf N Works]

Thanks for posting the vid, I might try this.

[chuck geiger]

Tom Placer on YOU TUBE says he would go to oversized CH throws over remote switch machines. But he was also the same guy with no control on the turnouts and wondered why one of his engines threw the turnout to the diverging route. I have done the same thing so no big deal. I want the springs with dummy switch stands.

[Frank Amato]

Same here @chuck geiger , I too want to avoid the oversized throws.  I am currently "shimming" my throwbars with styrene strip to get friction to hold the points, but it's not ideal.

  Frank

[Lemosteam]

I have done this using 0.015" Phosphor bronze wire.  It works very nice with just a finger pull or push.  I think you can get this to work with the turnouts installed if you add two extra bends at the end of the two legs that go into the ties like a 45 degree partial hook or a burr to hold it in after you wrangle it into each hole:
 


I found the hole size does not matter much so if you drill a 0.020" hole, you should be able to push the hooks through and the springs should stay in place.

[davefoxx]

@chuck geiger,

These little springs do work.  In fact, I've done them in HO and N scale.  I have two on my layout now.  The key is to make the spring just slightly longer than the two holes drilled into the turnout.  The little kink in the wire gives it the springiness needed to smoothly throw and yet hold the points to each side.  It works, and it'll cost you mere pennies per turnout.

Oh, and, yes, they can easily be added after the turnout is glued down.  In fact, that's the only way that I have done them.

DFF

[Wolf N Works]

Does anyone know if these work on hand laid turnouts?

[davefoxx]

Does anyone know if these work on hand laid turnouts?

Sure can.

DFF

[Wolf N Works]

great thanks

[robert3985]

I've built 'em for my hand-laid turnouts on customer's modules.  No problemo.  I prefer .015" phosphor bronze over piano wire, and I think that .020" wire is too thick. 

On the PCB spring mounting ties, you should gap the copper cladding in two places on either side of the spring holes, between the spring and the rails on either side.  Try to only remove the copper cladding because you want the two spring-mounting ties to be strong.  If you want to use only one gap, make sure it's on the same side of the spring holes on both mounting ties.  I prefer doing two gaps per mounting tie because it makes it look like there's a mounting plate in the center of the ties the spring is attached to for a more "machinery" look.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Wolf N Works]

Bob, thanks for the great info, much appreciated

[wazzou]

I'd made a gaggle of them of varying lengths for a long ago torn down layout using Piano wire, I believe.
The only reason I had chosen that wire was it matched the holes in the throw bars of the Peco turnouts I had used at that time.
I just bent two "V's" in opposing directions of the wire, making a "Z" I guess, and bent the wire 90 degrees up at the end to go through the hole in the throw bar.
With Peco turnouts, it gave a satisfying click when thrown.
For turnouts at oblique angles to the fascia, I used Model Airplane control rods. 
I think they were a yellow rod in a red tube and I drilled a hole in the yellow rod to accept the same diameter wire for use in the Peco turnouts
I was pretty sure I had kept all of them for possible re-use, but after a quick glance, I haven't located them yet.

[chuck geiger]

A better mouse trap:

[Sumner]

Sumner