Fast Tracks

Hello all,

Here's something I've been working on recently... Needing a few specialized turnouts and not wanting to spend big $$$ on a custom fixture, this is what I came up with...





The photos show a laser cut 2mm thick aluminum plate. The slots are for Fast Tracks narrow gauge PC tie stock. I machine slots for the rails into the plate using my milling machine, with a rotary table attachment. Laser cut screw and locating holes are reamed or drilled out and then the fixture plate is bolted to the rotary and aligned. About 20 minutes of machining later, I have a simple frog assembly fixture... The fixture holds the frog point and wing/closure rails in perfect alignment for soldering to the PC ties. The fixture was designed so that it holds only the straight sections of the closure rails, so that they can be preformed for later assembly operations.

More photos...

Here's a few photos of a practice turnout done using the fixture for the frog assembly, a paper template and roller gages...

Here's the final fixtures... Again, these are to build HOn2/7mm gauge #7 frog turnouts with Micro Engineering Code 55 rail. I use the Fast Tracks #7 Point/Frog filing fixture to file the points and the frog rails to profile. Fast Tracks HO scale Narrow Gauge PC ties are used in the fixture to assemble the turnout.


The photo above shows the left hand and right hand frog assembly fixtures. They will hold the frog, closure and stock rails in alignment on the PC ties for soldering. An American Beauty Resistance soldering unit is used for this...


The photo above shows the assembly fixture for the entire turnout once the frog has been assembled.


The photo above shows two profile gages (bottom two parts) for ensuring that the curved closure rails is of the correct profile (19.140" radius). The gage without the notches is used when forming radius in the rail and checking the bend angle for the frog wing rail. The gage with the notches is for ensuring that the rail maintains the correct radius when soldering to the PC ties.

The gage at the top is for cutting the closure rails to length, and then notching them for the bends for the wing rails. There's also a slot to cut the guard rails to length and for notching them for the bend/flares in the ends of both the wing rails and the guard rails.

Of course the Fast Tracks assembly fixtures are a better way to go, but not having one for this particular turnout, and having access to an industrial laser cutter and a manual milling machine, this is what I've come up with. It's not 100% ideal, but it works well enough and it saves me a lot of money on a custom fixture and it saves Tim and Co. the aggravation of having to fit one into their production schedule...

Lastly... These are not for sale, but I'd be willing to supply the final CAD drawing for the finished turnouts to anyone that would be interested in having Fast Tracks custom machine a fixture for them.

Jeff