Gregory Latiak GLatiak

In building the BQR-v1, I used a beautiful lever frame made by Modratec in Australia. All nicely machined brass, it provided a mechanical means to operate the turnouts in my yard. In preparing to move, I removed the WIT components to prevent them going astray. Modratec seems to have gone silent -- a hazard with any small manufacturer in this industry. Other than the lever frame, the nicest component of the system was the adjustable clutch that rode on the piano wire. One screw adjusted the position of the points operating wire and a spring-loaded screw varied the drag on the piano wire. Simple and reliable. But it looks like I will be needing a few more of these items as the trackwork will be changing in v2. My appeal is simple -- has anyone encountered anything like this that might still be commercially available? The scale is HO, but as this sits below the turnout I doubt that is a critical matter. I am not a metal worker else I would fabricate them myself. Looks like a block of brass with a couple holes -- two of them threaded.

s-clutch.jpg 

Thanks.

Gregory Latiak

Please read my blog

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Jim at BSME

Out of business?

I see their store on their website is "temporarily" closed, and also see they haven't posted to twitter since 2019.

Then I found a letter on rmweb, stating basically they wanted to fully retire, guess nothing came of the plea for help of ideas on how to continue the business. If you didn't get the letter you can review it here:  https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/149482-latest-email-newsletter-from-modratec/

Sorry can't be of more help, it does seem like something that a machinist to could make, maybe more pictures and some dimensions some could draw up a CAD drawing that you could shop around at a local machine shop and have some made.

You could always start with an email to the company to see if he is willing to share any CAD files with you.

- Jim B.
Baltimore Society of Model Engineers, Estd. 1932
O & HO Scale model railroading
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