Saturday, 30 May 2009

Easitrac Turnout

A few days ago I promised a posting on the progress I've been making with assembling an Easitrac turnout. Tonight I made quite a bit of progress on it, so it seems a good time to show you what I've been up to.


The photo above shows progress after the first evening. The straight stock rail is in place, and the crossing assembly has been soldered-up (using the assembly jig on the right). This is a left hand B7 turnout, and is build using a C&L template. The turnout timber positions don't match the milled base exactly, but are close enough for my purposes.

Another couple of hours work tonight brings the story up to date. I've yet to make the turnout blades, and will probably build a jig to make filing these easier, particularly as I need several more turnouts of this type. There are also more chairs to add to the left-hand end of the stock rails. The crossing nose needs a slight adjustment with a file as my first trials with a wagon showed that one of the flangeways is a bit on the tight side.
I'm sure subsequent turnouts will be quicker and easier to make - this is my first 2mm turnout and it's been a bit of a learning curve at times.
Andy

1 comment:

Yorkshire Square said...

Nice one Andy. Look forward to seeing progress at the next meeting; you'll have a half a dozen to bring along by then!

Cheers
Tony