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Shinohara/NKP Turnout Re-build Track and electrical/DCC
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Active Member 66 posts Laidlaym Active Member 66 posts
Laidlaym

I have several code 100 NKP branded turnouts in my staging yards that are giving trouble in reliably feeding current to the closure rails and points.  I have also fed the V crossings (frogs in US talk) via tortoise contacts but as I am using DCC I found I had to cut the closure rails to separate the points, some years later I am getting unreliable current to the points.

Any rebuild suggestions around?  I have vague recollections of an article somewhere for an "in position rebuild".

Mark in Melbourne
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Nick Santo amsnick MRH Advertiser and MRH Author 2,817 posts
Nick Santo amsnick

Did that on all my larger Shinohara/Tortoise combinations.

Soldered the points rails to their track with half a rail joiner, soldered the points rails to isolated pcb ties and increased the diameter of the tortoise wire to 0.031”.   Clean the points regularly on some now with paper towel and Wahl’s Clipper Oil.  If they are stubborn 8000 grit paper.  Not an easy job and took a lot of time but it worked and lead to building my own switch for a special location.  The homemade switch works and looks great.  Don’t use stay alives on any of my four axle locomotives.

Tony Koester gave me the ideas in an MR DPB video that might be available on YouTube.

Nick

Nick

https://nixtrainz.com/ Home of the Decoder Buddy

Full disclosure: I am the inventor of the Decoder Buddy and I sell it via the link above.
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marcfo68 Frequent poster 656 posts
marcfo68

. . .

Are your closure rails powered ?  Powered from the throw bar or power direct from the adjacent  stock rail ?

Powered from throw bar relies on a small brass or phosphor bronze tab to route power. These wear out over time and you start encountering no power situation. 

I disassembled the whole closure/points/throw bar assembly  and replaced it as Nick indicated except I used a guitar string to bridge the closure and point rail. My closure rail is powered from the adjacent stock rail via PCB tie.

I have a few posts in here showing the details. 

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/35273#comment-368232

This could be done with turnout in place but is time consuming.  But it is a catch 22,, replace the turnout with new or remove rebuild and use it again... You still have to remove existing turnout.

Marc
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