Well done

You make it look easy, which suppose is the point. Thanks for sharing your technique.

Nice video.

Very instructional

Dave,

This is an excellent well made video that helped me to see how you lay turnouts. I've made a couple curved turnouts on an old layout where there were no commercial switches available. Those switches took me forever and they looked rough. I don't know that I'll be faster but where your methods went into detail about the shape of the points and how to do the frog will help me a lot as I lay rail and make a couple of custom turnouts on my current layout. 

Thank you, Sam

Well done

Very nice video Dave. I really like your custom wood block for measuring the difference rail lengths. Nice video and great sound. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen anyone hand spike a switch. It is an art. Thanks for sharing. 

Have to Agree

You do make it seem easy. It also makes it seem worthwhile to give this a try. Last and only time was a curved N scale switch, which was a complete dud.

Jack

Perfect

Enjoyable watch.

N scale

I have laid 2 switches in N scale, both used PC board ties.  Did it basically as a test.  With small spikes and code 55 rail it didn't work so well, which led me to PC board ties (back in the  late1980's), but with ME Micro spikes it might work, code 40 would pretty much have to be soldered.  Code 40 HO gets dicey with micro spikes and doesn't work with any larger spikes, it pretty well has to be soldered to PC board ties.

A friend actually laid a spur with code 40 HO soldered to ties to represent a OLD siding that had 75 rail in it.  Had all sorts of problems with the roadbed contracting and expanding and causing the rail to kink or bust off the ties.

Never went there myself.

I did do rails soldered to PC ties back when I was a member of the Houston Society of Model Engineers in Manvel, TX.  I could make switches at home and then install them  on the club on meeting nights.  

Virtually all the switches on may various home layouts were laid in place, spikes to wood ties.

If you want to see what made me change from ME small spikes to micro spikes, on my website is the last run of the previous 1900 era layout I had.  I filmed that and when I watched the raw footage I noticed the spike size and that's when I decided I had to figure out how to use micro spikes.

Thanks

Thanks for all the kind words.  I am hoping to video the building of the PRR diamond at Suplee and show how I hand lay one of those.  I actually shot video building one diamond (just to the left of the switch in the switch video) but the first 10 minutes didn't record (operator error) so I'll have to wait until I get to Suplee and try it again.