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Hand laid double slip switch Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 105 posts Dan S. Regular poster 105 posts
Dan S.

to rectify a design fault i needed to allow the mainline to access the arrival/departure track in my small yard.  Using conventional turnouts was not an option as space is tight here. The solution was a double slip switch...not prototypical of an appalachian railroad but it was the best solution for the space i had. As i would only ever build one I used a template from Fast tracks for the rail placement and pasted it to a piece of heavy card. The slots for the pcb ties was cut out so the template would hold them in position. Doing this allowed me to lay the rails directly on the template for correct placement. For such a complicated piece of track it operates flawlessly. Big credit to Tim and the guys from fastracks for great products, documentation and templates. Without that it would have been so much harder. Here are some pics

 

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Dan
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tetters Regular poster 179 posts
tetters

Looks Good!

They are pretty easy to wire too.  You just have to make sure you route power to the correct frog depending on which set of points is thrown.  When I first did it I wired the frog to the points closest to it... wrong!  A moot point if you are using a Frog Juicer to control the polarity at the frog though.  

 Shane T.

 
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Greg Wolfe Active Member 72 posts
Greg Wolfe

Nice!

Very nice!

How thick was the card stock?

Greg Wolfe

Owner/Operator

SOUTH OROVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY

"SO it's My Railroad..."
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arthurhouston Prolific poster 1,154 posts
arthurhouston

Hinged Points

Cannot see in pictures you posted how the point are connected. Did you hing them using rail joiners?
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Dan S. Regular poster 105 posts
Dan S.

Due to the points being so

Due to the points being so short i hinged them with half rail joiners.. The card i used was about 40thou or 1mm.

 

Dan
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Artarms Regular poster 297 posts
Artarms

congratulations

Very nice work and an end result you can display, use, and  be proud of for many years.

Art
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Joe Atkinson IAISfan Super User 3,774 posts
Joe Atkinson IAISfan

Very nice

Really great work Dan.  Did you hand-lay the rest of your layout?  I chose to hand-lay mine in order to make the prototype's track schematic fit my space, and also out of simple economics, and I found it really enjoyable...even relaxing.

I'd be interested in seeing a layout plan sometime, if you have one you can share.

Joe Atkinson
Modeling Iowa Interstate's 4th Sub, May 2005
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John Winter Prolific poster 1,001 posts
John Winter

Admiration...

I admire you and your work. Great job. John

My Layout Blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/22280
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RichardStern Active Member 36 posts
RichardStern

Alternative approach

I've built a few of these. There appears to be one big error here...soldering the points to the throw rod. This will make for stiff operation and eventually pull the plating off the throw. Also makes it hard to assure both points are solid against the stock rail. I suggest two throw bars one each end of the DSS, one for the inside points and the other for the outside ones. Also, hinged points; I drill a #76 hole down through the base of the rail and solder a bit of wire to the rail so it goes down into the throw bar tie. I also hinge the points at their heel by drilling a hole through the Baseboard, insert brass tube and solder the point to a rod inserted into tube. You can power the point by soldering a wire onto the tube under the layout. You can even solder an actuating wire to the rod for a completely invisible connection to switch machine. Of course this means building the switch in place on the layout. But all this makes for a very free moving switch.
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tetters Regular poster 179 posts
tetters

Hinged points.

The rail joiner hinges will work just fine.  Soldering the points to the throw bar will work just as well too. 

However there is something to be said for making hinged pivots at the point end.  I used a variation of the method that Tim Warris demonstrated on the Fast Tracks website.  I just used some brass wire instead of a track spike.  Once installed it makes for a good reliable mechanism for the throw bar and the throw bar moves in a straight line. 

 Shane T.

 
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david.haynes Regular poster 109 posts
david.haynes

Sweet piece of work

I am assuming that is HO scale.

I build my own in N but am not brave enough to attempt something that complex yet.

-david-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N scale, DCC-NCE, Switching, Operations
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arthurhouston Prolific poster 1,154 posts
arthurhouston

Close up pictures of various Hing Points

This would be nice if each of you could post pictures of hinge points, bet Joe will pick up on it and repost on a update.
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mike.h Regular poster 215 posts
mike.h

Looks good, I wouldn't have

Looks good, I wouldn't have the necessary steady hand to do such a great work like this.
cheers,
Mike 
 
 
 
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TwinStar Active Member 53 posts
TwinStar

Back From the Dead

To revive an old thread if anyone is still around...

I have built three FastTracks #8 double slips, four #8 moveable point crossing, and have several more double slips to build. As stated earlier you can't solder the point rails to the throw bar. It may work for awhile on the outer points but it won't at all on the inner 'toads'. I'm at the point now of trying to find the best way to attach the short throws to the throw bar. I've looked at wire, the rail spike method, and P87 products. Does anyone have any additional input to offer?

Jacob Damron

Building a 1961 Free-mo module of Dallas Union Terminal
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brooksgary Active Member 77 posts
brooksgary

I read the comments about not

I read the comments about not soldering the points to the throw bar and would like to throw in my two cents.  I built three of the FT #6 DDS for my layout and have had two in place and using constantly for the past three years without any throw bar/point issues.  I've had more points break loose on standard #6 turnouts than the DDS and that I attribute to poor soldering.  I've never made pivot points for any of my turnouts so I cannot comment on which is better, I just know what works for me.
Gary Brooks
The GNKFB
Bsb2.jpg 
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TwinStar Active Member 53 posts
TwinStar

#6 vs #8

Gary:

The FT #6 double slip is a different animal than the #8. While you may have gotten away with soldering the 'long' points of the #6 it is impossible to solder the short 'toad' points at the interior of the #8. They require some method of allowing the point rail to pivot against the throw bar. Take a look at the FT documents and you'll see that there are 4 throw bars on a #8 versus the 2 on a #6.

 

Jacob
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brooksgary Active Member 77 posts
brooksgary

Jacob, Wow!  I thought the #6

Jacob,

Wow!  I thought the #6 was hard.  You are right in stating that it's a different animal.  I would not want to tackle that #8.
Gary Brooks
The GNKFB
Bsb2.jpg 
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