My concern (if not obsession) in all this turnout making has been to avoid gauge narrowing at the switch. The blades not only have to be the right thickness but must lie against the stockrail properly right along the length of the planing from tip to stockgauge.
By the time I'm making the last turnout for Kyle I've realised that there is no need for two stretcher bars on the model, certainly with this short A blade. The prototype makes do with one here as far as I can see in the pictures, and on the other (B) switches in the yard. It's a question of subtle bending of the switch rail prior to the blades, after it is filed satisfactorily, so that they want naturally to lie against the stockrail for the planing length. It's easier to do this with the diverging blade.
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I couldn't manage that with the main route one but bent it so that it wanted to lie against the stockrail at the stockgauge end, and in this position the tip was about a quarter of a mm distant. Thus with the action of the mechanism pushing the tip right home the blade would certainly be fully abutting for all the planing length.
Of course it's difficult to be sure it's right till it's soldered in place. One can only make a best guess, trying it in the it place it will be, but that is finally determined by tiny alignment adjustments and using the gauges.
One thing I wanted to ensure was that the blade was soldered at the same vertical angle as the stockrail so that it was right home at both top and bottom. I expect the stockrails are meant to be vertical through the switch. I'd be happy if the rails of the whole thing were vertical but I still haven't mastered getting them quite right and they both slope inwards about 20 deg - correct for plain line I believe. So I made sure I held the blade properly against the stock rail when making that crucial first solder join of blade rail to chair, 9 sleepers along from the tip in this case. That first fixing has to be right. It doesn't matter if the blade is also slightly sloping inwards - at least I can't see why not.
The one other thing about this section of track is the gauge widening. Seeing the checkrail on the photos I automatically thought 'this must be a sharp curve and must need the maximum widening'. I was forgetting that what is a sharp curve on the real thing is pretty mild on the model, and I forgot to check what Templot gave as the radius before commencing. After the outside running rail I fixed down the checkrail with the checkgauge tool. Then I got the 0.2 widened gauge to fix down the inner running rail, including the turnout and stockgauge. Only after it was all done, and complete with inner half chairs, I thought what a pity it was that the gap was in theory 0.88, effectively 0.9mm, rather undoing the narrow flangeways appearance of P4, relative to other standards.
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I checked the radius. It's 1807mm which on the chart my son made a few years ago puts it into the category of needing the full 0.1 widening (though by some folks reckoning this means it needs 0.2). I got out my rarely used 40w iron and the Society triangular gauge and adjusted the whole inner running rail, except the short switch section where the turnout was already made. (I find once the Masokits soldered track is fully made it is not easily adjusted except by an iron with more clout than my usual 25w.)
With this done I found the 0.1 wide gauge fitted perfectly. So now the gap must be effectively 0.8 while in S4 it would be (by my reckoning) 0.7, the checkrail being 0.1 further from the outer rail.
The turnout was tested with the largest wheel loco I have - elsewhere I've found it's bigger wheels that find any gap between blade and stockrail
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I've used EMGS fishplates which I will probably standardize on for joining plain track sections. In practice on the club layout I've found the Masokits ones tend to disintregrate unless totally soldered up.
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