You did a faboulus job a building this crossover. Did you use any jigs for construction?

Very nice work and only $15.00 Nice indeed and I have one made By Shinohara that sold for $70.00 and now they are selling on E-Bay for $150.00 when you can find one. Once you get it placed on your railroad post another photo of it in place.

Dan

Many thanks for the kind words. No jigs were used in construction.  I used a CAD package to draw the crossing full size and printed it on banner paper.  Only the running rails and ties were drawn in - check rails (guard rails in US) were NOT drawn in.  Only hand tools were used throughout apart from Track roller gauges to space the running rails.  I could be persuaded to build turnouts to order.  Hand made turnouts can be built to suit whatever is needed for any location.

After reading my publisher's editorial, I assume you've tested it thoroughly for shorts, right?

Mind sharing with us how you gapped it?

1.  This particular crossing was built using mainly short cut pieces of rail where required (NOT my prefered method of building) and these were spaced with four thicknesses of 80 gsm paper.  (80 grammes per square metre)  This leaves me with a 0.016 inch gap.  A useful fact that - a piece of "normal" weight paper is about 0.004 inch thick.

2.  Other rails were installed and cut after building was complete using a piercing saw (smaller version of a fret saw) and a 0.015 inch blade and cutting carefully.

3.  Sleeper (Tie) gaps were worked out and marked on this complex (about a 50 second job) and the sleepers (ties) were gapped using a rotary ball-ended bur (dental burr).  A visual check was then done and I then gapped the four sleepers I had missed!

4.  Testing was done using my trusty multimeter (yes on BEEP setting) and no faults found.  The next stage is done with all of my hand built turnouts - 36 inch lengths of plain track are connected to all roads and the whole thing tested on the bench.  Required wiring is "jury-rigged" for these tests.  Test locomotives are a 4-6-0 and a 0-6-0 steam outline locomoive.  These are run through the turnouts forwards and backwards at low and high speeds before they are hand turned and run through again.  I hope this is clear.  Any problems are fixed on the bench so that I know I am always installing tested turnouts on my railway.

5.  On the railway (railroad) itself turnouts are installed and tested one at a time - I learned about the problems that can arise installing 2 or more at a time some 30 years ago on my previous railways.

I forgot to mention that after all the soldering is finished and before cutting the gaps everywhere the whole thing is scrubbed using an old toothbrush head in the electtric toothbrush and using ordinary household washing up liquid!  It is then thoroughly rinsed and dried.  All tools used are hand tools and track gauges - but maybe I should add that I am a precision fitter (hand) by trade and a lot of experience of making things fit accurately helps a lot!

It looks impressive!

Great,

I like such trackwork. My latest turnout  was a curved code 70 dual gauge.

Wolfgang

Hi Railwaymad, Fabulous piece of craftsmanship !!!!!!! Lead on .