Greetings,
Work is progressing. I know I have not posted in some time but I do have three turnouts completed except for cutting the gaps at the frogs. I tested the ele. connections and I was able to isolate the points and turn on the DCC system to check all the polarity. Because the section I am working on is being built on the top of a short wall it has made wiring these turnouts interesting. Here is what I did.
Of course, the first thing was to get all of the ties down. After that I sanded the tops of the ties. Power needed to be routed to the frog area so I used my dremel with a router type bit to cut channels in the cork and through the extra wood on the turnout. The channel was then filled in with the wire that has a block soldered to the end.
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My five yr. old son then took over with a Floquil paint pen and painted most of the ties. I came along and painted some ties a different color and then touched up the areas he missed.
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Ballasting then came next. I have never enjoyed this job and I think this is typ. for most MRR's. However, I do not find it a dull job anymore. Adding the ballast was very fast and easy. It was poured right from the jar down the middle of the track area. The first pass with my finger pushed most of the stones down and off onto the shoulders of the roadbed. The remaining work was to lightly brush the rest off the ties and then dress up the shoulders. The rest is typ.; wet and then glue in place.
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Once the glue was dry I could then start laying track. The stock rails go in place as per the directions and the predrilled holes. The Frog point was made using a point form tool and the soldering jig. The bottom of the frog point was then tined as was the metal that will feed it power. Once located, I pushed the spikes holding the rails down tight and soldered the frog to the metal plate. A quick test with a multi meter showed I had good contact.
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The points and wing rails were made as per the directions. Once test fitted the base of the wing was tined and it too was soldered to the metal plate. Some excess solder flowed into the gaps between the Frog and the Wing but this was cleaned out with a section of hacksaw blade. The throw bar was gaped and put in place. Again these turnouts are on top of a short wall so they are all manual throw turnouts. I checked the whole turnout with the multi meter again and found that I was getting some contact in the throw bar so I added a few more gaps with the point of a hobby knife blade. The guard rails were glued in place with med. thick CA. The spikes will be added too.
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Christopher