Almost all of the switches on the turnouts I’ve been laying have ended up with good vertical and horizontal alignment (I do quite a bit of tweaking before assembly to make sure the switch rails make contact with the stock rail along the length of the planing and that the straight road is really straight). Generally, vertical alignment has been good as supplied, but one of the thirty assemblies ended up when laid with the switch rail seriously high.
My plan to repair this was to break off the fishplate at the toe end of the switch and slice into pieces the two S1 chairs at the toe end and the 1P chair near the centre of the assembly. Once the inner pieces of the 3P and 4P chairs had also been removed, the switch end could be swung inwards enabling the assembly to be slid out of engagement with the fishplates at the heel end. I thought it might pull right out of the L1 chair at the heel end too, but the worry was whether the dropper would move far enough and be able to be pulled out without having to re-do it.
It turned out the L1 chair had to come off too but the assembly then came out without difficulty, complete with dropper. The timbers then had to be cleaned up for the new chairs (the best thing about getting rail right out is that complete replacement chairs can be slid on).
My attempts to take close-ups were not good enough to show, but the problem with the switch rail was a combination of some vertical curving in the rail itself and - I now realise - the turnout being laid on a vertical curve as the 1:500 through the station steepens to 1:100 in the tunnel. I managed to bend the rail to get rid of the vertical curve by clamping it in the vice (and then had to correct the horizontal alignment!) and scraped a little off the three P chairs nearest the 1P chair so they wouldn’t lift the switch rail.
Chairs have now been slid on and the assembly is back in place ready for solvent. The etch at the rail joint sets the gap and the track gauges are chosen to give a little gauge widening (+0.1mm) at the toe.
All back together and the wagon now rolls over smoothly - a big improvement. The final picture shows that the down line is now complete, though wiring and TOUs are still to be done.
Correcting a Switch Rail
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andrew jukes
Correcting a Switch Rail
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grovenor-2685
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Bulwell Hall
Re: Correcting a Switch Rail
Hi Andrew
An interesting and informative thread. But could you please advise what ballast you are using - it looks spot-on for a well maintained main line and I should like to use the same? There is nothing on the Exactoscale site so a source would be very usefull.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Gerry
An interesting and informative thread. But could you please advise what ballast you are using - it looks spot-on for a well maintained main line and I should like to use the same? There is nothing on the Exactoscale site so a source would be very usefull.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Gerry
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craig_whilding
Re: Correcting a Switch Rail
Bulwell Hall wrote:Hi Andrew
An interesting and informative thread. But could you please advise what ballast you are using - it looks spot-on for a well maintained main line and I should like to use the same? There is nothing on the Exactoscale site so a source would be very usefull.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Gerry
It looks very much like the Greenscenes medium grey Gerry which i'd recommend anyway even if its not what Andrew used.
I do think the Exactoscale track is improved by removing the webs carefully before laying though so the ballast goes completely across under the BH rail.
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andrew jukes
Re: Correcting a Switch Rail
Hi Gerry
Yes, it is Green Scene. It's designated GS 411 but their 'improved' website doesn't seem to show it, which is slightly worrying. Best to give them a ring (01905 24298).
As to the webs, as in many aspects of modelling, it's a trade-off between perfection and time. Of course it would look better without them but the layout would be even further from completion - and they may be less visible when (eventually) the track is weathered. I will also need to overlay the ballast in the sidings with something more ash-like, having taken the view that trying to get all the finishes right at the same time as getting the railway up and running would delay things too much.
Something else that a closer look shows is that plain line laid with the fresher (runnier) adhesive is better than the panels laid with the older stuff and that the worst places are in turnouts where the webs are wider - see IMG_0158a.jpg - so using decent glue and some selective removal of webs could be an answer.
Regards
Andrew
Yes, it is Green Scene. It's designated GS 411 but their 'improved' website doesn't seem to show it, which is slightly worrying. Best to give them a ring (01905 24298).
As to the webs, as in many aspects of modelling, it's a trade-off between perfection and time. Of course it would look better without them but the layout would be even further from completion - and they may be less visible when (eventually) the track is weathered. I will also need to overlay the ballast in the sidings with something more ash-like, having taken the view that trying to get all the finishes right at the same time as getting the railway up and running would delay things too much.
Something else that a closer look shows is that plain line laid with the fresher (runnier) adhesive is better than the panels laid with the older stuff and that the worst places are in turnouts where the webs are wider - see IMG_0158a.jpg - so using decent glue and some selective removal of webs could be an answer.
Regards
Andrew
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