Building a set of points

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pandsrowe
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Building a set of points

Post by pandsrowe » Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:32 pm

When I first started out with garden railways about six years ago I thought that I would make my own points for my line and accordingly purchased a lot of the components to do this. After examining all these different bits and pieces I very rapidly concluded that life is too short to go down this road and consequently bought in Peco points.
The fact that I've had all these parts in stock has always nagged at the back of my mind as being wasteful and as I'm about to embark on an extension to my line I decided to persevere and make the points for it. Big mistake! My original conclusion was correct - life is too short. However I have made one set as I was determined to finish what I had started!
My first problem was how to secure the frogs, wing rails and check rails to the plastic sleepers, the supplied chairs are too wide so I reverted to cutting strips of brass and soldering the rails to these and in turn securing the brass "chairs" to the sleepers with 10BA screws and nuts as I don't trust any adhesive to join brass and plastic long term in an outside environment. However I cheated and used one large piece of brass rather than cutting out lots of individual pieces. I then clamped the relevant brass pieces and rails together whilst the soldering was carried out.
Having got this far gave me the impetus to press on and apart from some difficulty in producing a suitable arrangement to actuate the point blades I finally ended up with the result as shown in the photo. I still have to paint the bare brass so it's not quite so obvious although no doubt it will soon tarnish anyway. Would I do it again? Definitely not, I have far better things to do with my time, so various traders will benefit from my custom over the next few weeks.
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I'm sure that some of the more experienced modellers here will tell me of better ways of point construction but at least it's done now and I can now move onto the next stage of my extension project.
Phil

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Re: Building a set of points

Post by ge_rik » Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:46 am

Hi Phil
Well to my mind they look really good - especially the way you've included a bell crank.

Not made my own pointwork in this scale (only in 00n3), but I agree with you about it being time consuming. Also, I found there was a certain amount of tweaking required afterwards to make sure the stock ran through OK - though that may have been more to do with my lack of constructional skills than anything else.

The advantages are, of course, that you can make pointwork to fit specific locations - in my case a curved point which was not available at the time in 00n3

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TonyW
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Re: Building a set of points

Post by TonyW » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:20 am

When I built my first line 25 years ago I needed 17 points. I looked at the commercial offerings and decided that I could build my own for a fraction of the price. Tenmille components (sleepers, rail, chairs) were used and a drawing was purchased from them too. The nice thing about Tenmille chairs is they simply clip in to a hole drilled in the sleeper with no other fastening needed, so it was just a case of drilling the holes in the correct place.

I also decided to silver solder all the joints as soft solder fails outside after a few years.

The first point took me two evenings to complete. The last one took me two hours. All 17, plus a few more built since, are still in use on their second railway.
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Re: Building a set of points

Post by Soar Valley Light » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:00 pm

Hi Phil,

I agree with Rik, a very nice job. It is time consuming and a high degree of accuracy is required in places to ensure reliable operation. The method of construction has a big effect on time taken to construct. Tony makes some interesting comments too.

I've begun building my own turnouts using Cliff Barker products. I started with the one large curved turnout I shall need, I intend the remainder to all be left or right hand out of straight 1 in 6 fittings. All my turnouts are loose heeled straight switches. I've calculated and drawn my own turnout plans and copied them to use as templates. I'm still learning and adapting techniques (I'm only on my third so far). Once I've established a reliable process I'll publish it on here in my CFLR topic in 'Railway and Layouts'. Being a pway man by profession probably explains why I'm persevering with it but you don't need a lot of technical knowledge to be able to build track for yourself. Just patience and a degree of OCD!!!!

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Re: Building a set of points

Post by bazzer42 » Sat Aug 05, 2017 7:53 am

That is a nice looking point Phil but have to say after toying with the idea of pointconstruction I came to the exact same conclusion as you - my life is too short. I have to say that hand built track always looks better but that is the trade off / compromise decision we have to make.

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Re: Building a set of points

Post by philipy » Sat Aug 05, 2017 7:59 am

I'm with Tony on this one. I have 8 turnouts on my line, one Peco and 7 home made. I wouldn't claim 2 hours a time, but I have to hand file the components, which is the most time consuming bit, whereas I suspect that Tony has access to a milling m/c? I reckon about 6-8 hours each, now, using Peco chairs solvent-welded to hand cut 5mm black Foamex sleepers. As Tony said, the beauty is that you can make them to fit the track, rather than the track fitting the points.

I admire the work that Andrew and Phil have done with theirs, but IMO it's a modified version of the '6ft Rule' that is required in general. I certainly wouldn't want to install mine on the WCML :lol: , but they work in my garden and that's what matters at the end of the day.
Philip

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pandsrowe
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Re: Building a set of points

Post by pandsrowe » Sat Aug 05, 2017 9:07 am

Thanks for your various kind comments, it very nearly makes the time spent building worthwhile!
Rik - the bell crank is to allow operation via a Bowden cable as this particular point will be located in a very difficult to access position, some 4 - 5mtrs away from the normal operating location. Only time will tell as how successful this will be.
Philipy - I did experiment with a number of different adhesives including plastic solvents but none seemed to secure Peco chairs to Peco sleepers in a manor that I was happy with for exterior use. Hence my fixing with screws and nuts, maybe I just didn't try the right one.
I had planned a number of jobs on my railway today but it's just started raining. Grrr.
Phil

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Re: Building a set of points

Post by TonyW » Sat Aug 05, 2017 10:48 am

philipy wrote: Sat Aug 05, 2017 7:59 am ... whereas I suspect that Tony has access to a milling m/c?
If only! No, all the grinding was done with a twin-stone bench grinder purchased specifically for the job. It cost me £20 (in 1991), so two-thirds the cost of one Tenmille point, and I still have it today.

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Re: Building a set of points

Post by Dwayne » Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:01 pm

Congrats on the switch. :thumbup:

I've never used commercial switches and have simply fabricated my own primarily because I'm cheap and I actually enjoy the process of building these things. Takes me about 2-3 hours to construct one depending on whether it's a straight unit, double curved or a wye.

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