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 Post subject: Yard Ladders
PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:10 pm 
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Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2
Anyone ever build a yard ladder without using any rail jointers? I'm in the process of building four #4.5 turnouts all ganged together. Three are right hand and the fourth is a left hand. The frog rails will become the stock rail on the next turnout. I started with the left hand turnout and was working my way back up the ladder but I think I just determined that this was backwards I should have started with the three right hand turnout. That way the left hand stock rail is the same for all three and then feeds the frog of the left hand. I think this will be eaiser. After these four I'm going to tackle the #5 double slip.

Ken


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 Post subject: Re: Yard Ladders
PostPosted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:40 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:32 am
Posts: 41
I've done this. I probably went over the top too and used all PC Board tie construction, mostly because these were salvaged off the previous incarnation of my current layout effort and I was a little worried about their strength.

I used a # 6 curved turnout at the head of the ladder and then used three # 5's.

The first thing I did was print off the appropriate templates for each turnout. I then drew four lines on 2" centers along the board for the track centers and carefully lined up the the turnout templates while gluing them to a piece of 1/4 hard board.

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I removed the stock rail from the three # 5's for the straight route and used a single piece of 3' rail to "connect" it all as one piece, for the diverging routes, I just made sure if I didn't carry the rail all the way to the frog (where I also left a small isolation gap) that any joints between rails were soldered over top a PC board tie.

I used some weights to hold everything in place while I marked the locations to remove the base of the rail in the long stock rail for the point rails to sit in. A quick trip to the belt sander took care of that job.

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Then working my way "down" I just began to solder everything in place. It was very time consuming and tedious work. Especially since I went the all PC Board tie route. I'm glad I did though because by the time I was done I had a pretty solid and accurate yard ladder ready to install on my layout.

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I used a steel ruler to try and keep everything as straight as possible.

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The completed ladder.

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I'm sure the method of using the PC board ties throughout was probably not necessary. However, I wanted to make sure that the track work would be pretty solid, especially as I mentioned the turnouts were being recycled for this purpose.

I should also note that a piece of track work this large can still be pretty fragile. When I carried it to the sink for a good scrubbing with some hot soapy water I carried it by one one end and let hang as opposed to trying to carry it level.Therre is still quite a bit of flex with it being unsupported and I didn't want to take the chance that it would bend or break on me.

I hope this helps.


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 Post subject: Re: Yard Ladders
PostPosted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 7:40 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:29 pm
Posts: 24
Thats similiar to what I did and am doing. I built the yard lead in place on my layout, and spaced the turnouts with the yard tracks at 2" intervals too. Starts out with straight turn outs and ends with curved ones.

The use of all PC ties makes a great point for strength, but make sure you get them all gapped!

Thomas


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 Post subject: Re: Yard Ladders
PostPosted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:03 pm 
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Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:22 pm
Posts: 2
Thanks for the tips guys. I'll post some pictures later.


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 Post subject: Re: Yard Ladders
PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:13 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:32 am
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