Before I ramble on about track, some roadbed is in order. I use cork roadbed over a sandwich of 1/2" homosote bonded to 1/2" plywood. I can here you cringing right now, "why on earth would he do this?", well, it was "the" method at the time and so far, has worked out ok. The trick to it, is to get all exposed sides of the homosote sealed with latex paint or matte medium to prevent unwanted expansion and contraction of the homosote due to changes in temperature and humidity. In the future I'd like to try using a foam roadbed system.
Now, it's back to trackwork, turnouts in particular. My first few turnouts were crude and were skeleton turnouts using only four pc ties per turnout. These are my biggest source of maintenance headaches and are scheduled to be replaced. The next versions were built in place with every other tie being a pc tie and using additional pc ties to reinforce the stock rails where they are notched to receive the point rails. These turnouts perform quite well. My latest turnouts use ALL pc ties and can be built in place or on the bench. I'd lump these into the "bulletproof" catagory.
I've built a few of these turnouts using used rail salvaged from flextrack. Building turnouts from this rail insures compatability with the brand of flex track you are using. This page shows how I built a #4 right hand turnout using rail from Micro Trains flex track.
There are several ways to throw your turnouts. I use currently use two methods. The first method I chose was to use switchmaster switchmachines. This view shows how they mount underneath the layout . The contact switch changes the frog polarity when the rails are switched. The view from above shows only the throwbar and the music wire sticking up. Switchstands can be attatched to this piece of music wire, but I chose not to have them. The second method was published in the Jan/Feb 1994 issue of Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette. It uses a simple spst slide switch to control the turnout. After actually operating the layout, I found that manual turnout controls are by far the easiest to install, use and maintain. I'll use this slide switch method for all future turnouts. It's easy, rugged, and best of all, inexpensive.
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