Fast Tracks

Hi Gents!

Andy of the P87 group has completed his detail sets of the code 40 tie plates, and associated details for code 40 rail. I would imagine these would be very useful for anyone wanting to handlay their turnouts but would like the extra detail levels enjoyed by those using commercial plastic turnouts.

Rob of
Prototrack,
Anchorage, Alaska

Hi

I have a feeling that commercial turnouts will look wery toylike when compared to a code 40 handlaid turnout with all those etched detail parts applied.

If I have got things right we should be able to use the fastracks jig and still use the tieplates, right?

Ie. the tieplates are thin enough so that we can sandwitch them between the rail and the pc boards when we build the turnout in the jig and still have the rails sit securely in the grooves of the jig.

Or are the tieplates thicker then the depth of the grooves in the jigs?

Anyone that has tested the above are welcome to tell how the experiment worked since I am interested in trying it out as well.

Sincerely

/Leo Sandstr?m

Hello Leo,

I think its a little unrealistic to expect the rail to fit in the grooves of the fasttrack jigs, (given their preciseness) with the tie plates. That will have to be a separate installation. After a few turnouts on the jig, you should be able to lay your own turnouts with nothing but a NMRA gauge and a template.

Rob

Actually Rob, this realistically could be done. If the width of the tieplate is the same as the width of the tie, it will fit right down on the tie in the fixture.

However, if the thickness of the tieplate is more than the distance from the top of the tie to the (top of the) fixture surface, then the rail obviously will not fit in the machined rail grooves.

All it takes is a few seconds to measure...

-sd80mac-

_________________
Romans 10:9-10

Yep the moment you push the tie plates down into the fix, (that is if you can) they are going to bend or snap off. Then you'll have to either bend them back or glue the pieces on. More than likely since they are very thin, they will distort.

Rob

What are you talking about? The tieplates are no wider than the tie themselves, so how can you break them? You simply place them down on the tie once you place the tie in the fixture.

Line up the etched rail groove on the tieplate to the machined rail groove in the fixture and drop your rail in. No distortion at all...

-sd80mac-

_________________
Romans 10:9-10

Hello Sd80,

i think your missing the fact that the rail bottom fits in slot, the tie is below the slot with the top of the tie equal to the bottom of the rail. Thus when you place the tie plate on the tie, it will bridge both sides of the rail bottom.
I guess one of us is going to have to try this to find out what it is I'm talking about.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Maybe on your fixture, but on mine, when the ties are inserted into the tie slots, the tops of the ties sit about .010" above the floor of the rail slot.

-sd80mac-

_________________
Romans 10:9-10

I guess we will have to try this and find out what works and what doesn't. At the very least the tie plates will bend up to some degree. I don't thinks the rail is going to fit in the slots with the tie plate underneath. However so we don't banty about this on and off, in a week or two I am going to crank out a turnout #6 trying out various methods and will post MY experiences with the tie plates.

Rob

I think you are missing the point Rob.

I will try and pop in the tieplates on the PC board ties, there should be ample clearance there, I was only concerned with the thickness of the tieplate itsself.

We are not trying to pop a tieplate into the railgrooves. We are laying them on the ties that we solder in place and then once we have a skeleton done we turn it over and add the remaining ties and tieplates.

For as long as the thickness of the tieplates dont force the rail out of its slot things should work out just fine.

Then again, I havent recieved my tieplates to test things out yet, but if Sd80mac is correct then things look like they might work out just fine.

I was able to use the tie plates from Alkem Scale Models in the Fast Tracks #8 turnout fixture. These tie plates are .010 thick but have a .006 groove the width of the rail base. The tie plates fit in the fixture on top of the PC board ties and can be soldered to both the rail and PC board at the same time. This does raise the rail base up but it still fits into the grooves of the fixture. I have not tried the Proto 87 switch details but they should work in the fixture. I wish that the Proto group had made code 55 switch details.

John Butler

john,
can you post any pics?
thx

Oh well I stand corrected, I just didn't think the plates would fit in the slot without bending.

on the 55 why not use the code 40 plates?

Rob

Hi, I just wanted to mention that I recently received a few samples of Andy's N-scale code 40 tieplates & joint bars. Man, are they tiny! I'll be putting together some samples in the near future & will post some pics when available.

It's going to be interesting to figure out the best construction method(s) for these. Right now I'm leaning toward epoxy over CA, spikes, or soldering.... it's going to take a bit of trial-and-error I think.

This is a picture on the Alkem Scale Models code 55 tie plates. They do not make any switch detail type of plates. The groove fits the ME code 55 rail base quite well. I do not have any of the code 40 switch tie plates. That is why they were not used.