The late Wolfgang Dudler who

The late Wolfgang Dudler who was a superb modeller and a very helpful person documented his here:

http://www.westportterminal.de/manualturnout.html

remote manual turnout throws

Take a look at Humpyard Purveyance controls. They look cool and work well-I have several.

Dante 

I've gone low tech

 I use regular, off the self, household 3 way toggle switches to both mechanically move the turnout point as well as flipping the frog polarity. I connect the switch to the turnout with some cheap RC airplane control cable. I don't have access to any pictures right now, but I can post some if anybody wants.

It's a very cheap,way to control your switches, under five bucks a piece (and that's Canadian). The oldest version I have of this is eight years old and I have NEVER had  one fail.

" fascia mounted remote

    I like the Blue point controllers, nice and compact and easy to mount. They cost more than home made systems but save a lot of time fiddling around with parts needed to make up something that would work reliably to throw the points as well as power the frogs. If the Blue points are mounted near the front of the layout they don't really need fascia linkage as it's easy to reach under the layout and throw them directly. ...DaveB

Fascia Mounted remote controls

I am using Fast Tracks "Bullfrog" controls. They are fairly cheap, especially if you buy them unassembled. They are fairly easy to install and work very well.

Mel

t

Fascia mounted turnout controls

I use a manual metal choke cable available at any auto parts store.  I have one turnout not accessible from below that I use this technique.  20 years without failure or error.  Knob is slightly recessed in the fascia and moves about 1/4 inch pushed or pulled to throw the turnout.   Scenery hides the end of the cable at the turnout.

@Rick

Please post some pics of your setup. I'm Canadian too and on a tight budget.

thanks for the feedback. i

thanks for the feedback. i saw the blue points and it looked like a nice option that i would most likely go with. however , after you buy the all the required linkage etc etc , isnt the price of one unit about the same as just doing a tortoise? i saw bullfrogs for about $9 , but that too was without the linkage kit. if you guys have a good source for these , please share.

Turnout Throws

Don't know if this will help, but here's the solution I came up with. Scroll about half way down the blog post and you'll see some pictures of my manual pulls.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/9207

A simple control for me...

I had one turnout recently that need to be remotely operated.  The commercial fascia model I had on hand had a 3 foot limitation of the cable operation. I just needed a couple inches more so I built this using a wood dowel and an old Earl Eshleman turnout crank, and some music wire.  This worked for me as the turnout luckily was in a straight line from where I wanted to control it.

The Eshleman link topside:

[attach:fileid=208690_14_BFUFR85J9Tj+lAH/2Q==]

Underneath i connected the crank lnk with music wire to the wood dowel:

Running the dowel through metal screw eyes to another short piece of music wire through the fascia:

I made a gate type affair in a piece of heavy styrene to make a fascia opening cover and used another piece of dowel for a handle.  It effectively and easily operates the turnout by lifting the handle up, sliding it one way or the other along the gate and dropping it down to lock the turnout in place.

I still need to clean it up a lot for appearance.  I was mainly interested in seeing if the idea would work and it does.

3-Way Switch Control

Here is the basic set up for my turnout controls:

The R/C cable can be bought anywhere R/C planes are sold. It's just a steel wire cable inside a plastic sleeve. (I'm sure one could source these materials separately if one had many turnouts to do and wanted to bring the price down even more.)

The brass tube is just that. It surrounds the steel cable and wire spring and is then filled with solder the attach the two firmly.

The wire spring is bent out of .020" piano wire. it makes up for the difference in the throw of the turnout and that of the 3-way switch.

The metal clevis comes with the R/C cable and is soldered onto the wire spring. It has to be bent a little wider to fit,over the toggle of the switch. The side away from the camera has a small metal pin that pops right into a hole drilled into the 3-way switch toggle. no other form of connection is necessary.

The 3-way switch is a normal household light switch. because it is a single pole double throw switch it can be wired up to flip the polarity of your frogs.

All of the sub assemblies can be done at the workbench and screwing the frog wires to the switch can be done while it is dangling below the layout. once the switch is screwed in place across from the plastic sleeve of the R/C cable you merely tread the steel cable up from the bottom, snap it onto the toggle and the underside work is done.

I align the turnouts by putting the toggle in it's centre position, as well as the turnout points then soldering the steel wire to the PC board throwbar. This way you have an equal throw on either side. I've very rarely had to make any other adjustments after that.

Obviously if you have plastic throwbars you would have to devise a different way of attachment, wire linkage of some sort.

I was going to run some sort of linkage from the toggle to the front of the fascia and put on a knob, or some such, but I found that having the control, under the leading edge of the layout was cleaner looking and had almost no chance of being bumped into. I mark the locations of the toggles like so:

That's it, in a nut shell.

"That's it, in a nut

    Nice presentation. I like those fascia labels. I throw my Bluepoints under the table too, a little string tassel tied on them makes it easier to find the lever.  Do your 3 way switches have click stops at the end to hold their setting? all the ones I've seen at the hardware store lately are silent type with little holding power....DaveB

@ ctxmf74

They are just regular switches there are no detents or anything to hold the switch once thrown. The internal springs have enough force to hold the turnout over as well as flipping the electrical contacts inside the switch. That is why I added the wire spring, to take up any slack. The turnout throws, maybe, .060" while the switch is more like a 1/4". All I know is that it works well.

Manual controls

Here is what I have come up with for my layout.

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/simple-switch-control-12197663

Willy

Another option - somewhat more expensive

I'm expecting to receive ten of my turnout controls from Shapeways this week. They're a little more complex than a knob on the end of a choke cable, or a switch, but also a little more similar to the real action of bending the rail.  Here is a photo of the proof of concept prototype.

At the other end, I'm using modified Bullfrogs, but in actual fact any sort of lever mechanism would work as well. The Bullfrogs provide a detente, but it isn't required with the positive locking action of the throw. 

I'll let you know how they go.

Rene

Bullfrogs

Fast Tracks website lists unassembled bullfrogs package of five for $31.50 which works out to $6.30 each, no linkage.

Mel

Toggle Switch

Here is a manual linkage used by a half dozen or more layouts in the Omaha area.  The idea for the toggle switch originated with Jeff Otto, Don Wetmore came up with using the "truss tie" bracket and I added the terminal strip and some complicated linkages on the end of the toggle (can be much simpler).

The toggle are activated by 1/4" dowel push rods.  The pipe cap is a pivot to "turn a corner" where the switch throw is perpendicular to the fascia.

Here are the truss tie brackets, available at Menards.  A Unibit is used to drill a 1/2" hole in the long leg for the toggle and a 1/16" hole is drilled in the short leg as a pivot for the throw rod.

We use DPDT paddle handle toggles from Radio Shack or Jameco (cheaper).   I added a terminal strip to make installation and replacement quicker.

Manual switch control

Here is what I'm doing on the HO scale Juniata & Southern.  I like using Caboose Industries ground throws because throwing them is a very "railroady" thing, but I don't care for their appearance.  I used a combo of O scale ground throws and  Humpyard levers, both mounted out on the fascia.

Remote switches -

I also recommend the household switch and plastic box ... works very well, is a clean setup, too .... and cheap.

Skip
 

Like many posted before, I

Like many posted before, I use brass rods with electric connection clamps and SPDT switches. On the fascia the brass rod holds a color coded wooden ball. Either red - for mainline or yellow for all other turnouts. The colored side marks the turnouts normal position.

@Davebr40..........

.........I like that setup as you don't have to install everything on your back under the layout, which is becoming a real problem as I get older!  Do you have any frog polarity control with this setup? 

Thanks.............

Peter

What is the linkage

@Davebr40,  What are you using for the linkage between the ground throw and the points?

Thanks,

Polarity control...

Thanks, Peter.  Most of the switches are ME #6, and I don't have any trouble leaving those the frogs dead (I don't run any really short wheelbase engines).  I have three switches with longer frogs, and I use Frog Juicers on those.

Linkage

Jim,

The linkages are made from the leftover 'steel wire in teflon tube' control linkages supplied with the Humpyard levers.  The same stuff can be purchased in the R/C airplane aisle.