Fast Tracks Turnout Part II

This morning I attached the guardrails to the #8 turnout. I waited to do this because I wanted to get a new soldering iron and some thinner solder as I mentioned in the previous post.

I picked up this Radio Shack Pro Series 25w soldering iron, spare tip, and 1.5oz of .022 diameter 64/34/2 (64% lead, 34% tin, 2% silver) solder for $40 at Radio Shack. Apparently they are going out of business (I thought they announced this a year or two ago???) and everything in the store was 30% off. I imagine however that they probably raised prices 30% before announcing the 30% off clearance price...

Anyway, the new soldering iron and thinner solder works much better than my old Weller economy model with .040 solder. This soldering iron is rated at 1000 degrees heat at 25w while my Weller was only rated at 750 degrees at 40w. The increased heat allowed the solder to melt and wick much easier than before and the smaller solder meant that I had much better control over the melting solder feed. That and hopefully as my soldering skills improve I will not get the big blobs of solder on the ties.

One thing I noticed about the Fast Tracks jig is that on my particular jig - see pic below - and they are produced with CNC milling equipment so I can't imagine mine is different than any other jig you would get from Fast Tracks, but the little channel used for measuring and cutting guard rails seems about 1/8" too short. I did the diverging route guardrail first (on the left) so I didn't really notice it but when I did the normal route (on the right), it became apparent when I centered the guardrail on the two ties and the one end was noticeably too short to match up with the frog wing rail across from it.

Pay no attention to the blobs of solder...

I attached the guardrails outside the jig because I just butted the guardrails up against the stock rail. You will also notice that I didn't bend the ends of the guardrails (or the wing rails) and instead just filed a bevel on the ends of the straight guardrail. I think this looks more realistic and it still functions just fine.

NMRA says the target for HO scale standard flangeways is .048, with only .002 over tolerance allowed but a generous .013 under tolerance is allowed. Using my nearly 40 year old veneer caliper to measure the flangeways on this turnout, I also discovered that the distance between the frog point and the wing rails was about .055, which is .007 over tolerance and not acceptable. Test fitting revealed that when two pieces of Micro Engineering code 83 rail are butted against each other at the base, the flangeway between the two rails is about .045, which is .003 under tolerance which in my mind is perfect for code 110 wheels and probably for code 88 wheels as well. Basically, the base of the frog point rails need to butt up against the wing rails just like I did with the guard rails, and in the photo above you can see there is a gap.

One thing worth mentioning is that NMRA tolerance for Proto:87 flangeways is between .021 and .023. This is less than half the standard tolerance and would require the bases of the rails to be filed away to allow the rails to get even closer together. For comparison, the thickness of the standard NMRA gauge is .020!

Fine scale tolerance (meant for code 88 wheels) is .040 but I'm betting standard NMRA tolerance would work just fine for code 88 wheels.

Guard rails butted against stock rails

The real test was running the code 110 wheelset and the code 64 wheelset over the turnout. No difference in performance with the code 110 wheels - they roll through the frog just fine - but an unexpected surprise was when the code 64 wheels also ran through much better than without guard rails. Just pushing the code 64 wheels and letting them roll free did still give a few derailments, but if I rolled them through with some slight pressure to simulate the weight of a freight car on the truck, it allowed the guard rails to do their job and the truck rolled through much better than before.

The big takeaway here is I need to really pay attention to the bend at the wingrails and the alignment of the frog point to make sure the tolerance doesn't exceed the target. I think even using the Fast Tracks jig it is quite possible to force the rails into the guides and yet have them be out of tolerance. A few thousandths of an inch is all it takes.

I have also ordered a Stock Aid filing tool from Fast Tracks. While it was possible to file the recess at the points without one, it was not easy and the end result was probably not as accurate as using the Stock Aid tool would have been.

I'm glad I made this first turnout having no expectation of ever using it on the layout, although I am sure it would work. I think my next effort will be to build one outside of the jig, just using the printed diagram as a guide. I think that would allow me to tighten up my tolerances to be more to my liking, although I'm sure it will be more difficult to hold everything in place and gauge it as I build it. I will probably still build the frog in the jig and I will definitely still use the filing tools.

First Fast Tracks Turnout; Train Show Acquisitions; a PRR vintage model

Desperate to build something model railroad related, I finally broke down and bought a Fast Tracks #8 Turnout Jig in Code 83. I also purchased the #8 Point Form Filing Tool for Code 70-100 rail along with it. I did not buy the Stock Aid Filing Tool. Sorry Tim Warris, but at $75 that will have to wait.

For those who may not be schooled on it there are three main items that make up the Fast Tracks "system". There are certainly many other items available at Fast Tracks; really all you need though to build a turnout is a jig, a Point Form Filing Tool, and a Stock Aid Filing Tool. I did not use a Stock Aid Filing Tool and although I did have a bit of a hard time filing the point recesses in the stock rails, it was certainly not impossible without the tool.

If you want to buy the minimum recommended items to construct a turnout with, you would buy the jig for the desired turnout geometry and rail size (in my case #8 in Code 83), a Point Form Filing Tool that matches the turnout geometry and rail size (again in my case #8, Code 70-100), and a Stock Aid Filing Tool to match your rail size. Fortunately, one Stock Aid Filing Tool is all you need for any size turnout, but you do need to get a Point Form tool to match the size jig you want to use.

I would probably not buy another jig just to make the same turnout in Code 70; I dry-fit some Code 70 rail into the jig and it seemed to work just fine.

Here is my first #8 turnout built with Code 83 rail in a Fast Tracks jig. It is complete minus the two guard rails and the rest of the ties of course.

I won't go step by step here on the construction process but I will present an AAR for my first turnout. The photos above depict the nearly finished turnout with all rails soldered to the PC board ties and the points soldered to the throwbar. There are no guard rails installed yet.

First I must mention that my soldering skills besides sweating some copper pipe in the house are limited to what I learned building this turnout and also a few decoder installations that I've done in the past few years. I think I way over-soldered this turnout.

The standard Kadee RP25 wheelset (the one sitting on the rails) rolls through both legs of the turnout quite smoothly with no clicking or jerking. That is without frog guard rails installed! RP25 wheels are Code 110 (.110" wide) wheels and are pretty much the standard wheel size with any rolling stock purchased today.

The other truck (the one not sitting on the turnout) has Proto:87 wheels from Northwest Short Line installed on it. Proto:87 wheels are true scale size. The wheel is only Code 64 (.064" wide) and the flange profile is also scale size. This truck does not make it through the frog at all. It dips down into the gap between the wing rails and the frog and derails at that point. I expected this would happen before I even tried it because Proto:87 wheels require scale dimensions for the flangeways at the wing rails and the guard rails because those parts actually perform their duty just like on a prototype turnout. All of those dimensions are much tighter than standard NMRA dimensions which is what the Fast Tracks jig is built to. Of course I will try the Proto:87 truck again once I get the guard rails installed, but I don't think they will help much.

That being said, do I even need to worry about the Proto:87 wheelset derailing in this turnout? There was a day when I considered modeling in Proto:87 but researching the topic revealed that it is beyond my skills or desire for such a negligible payout for all the hard work. While a car definitely looks better up close with scale wheels on it, your trackwork also has to be very tight to use P:87 equipment. Maybe if I decide to get into photography I could build small dioramas to Proto:87 standards, but I think if I was going to get into model railroad photography to that extent I would probably go for Proto:48 (O Scale Prototype) so that I could really go all out on the details that scale allows. For everyday operation, I think NMRA standards in HO scale are more than enough accuracy. As a compromise though, NWSL does make Code 88 (.088") wheelsets that look better than RP25 wheels but perform better than P:87 wheelsets. That could be worth investigating.

Anyway, back to the turnout. In short, my main lessons learned are that I need a better soldering iron and I need smaller diameter solder, and I also need to improve my soldering technique because I think it was quite sloppy. My soldering iron is a 40w Weller but it is the "economy" model that you can get at Hobby Lobby for about $20. I probably need to invest in the better quality Weller model that runs about $40-$50. Even though mine is 40w it just doesn't seem to get that hot. I'm also using .040 diameter 60/40 (60% Tin, 40% Lead) solder, but I need to get some .020 diameter instead. The .020 is what is sold on Fast Tracks website. The larger diameter solder I used created some huge blobs of solder that probably would have been easier to control with smaller diameter solder.

Bottom line - I like the Fast Tracks system overall. The biggest concern when handlaying track is gauging it but I didn't have to worry about that at all here because the jig does that naturally. As far as cost, Fast Tracks is high cost up front but it pays for itself after building just a few turnouts. Considering that a commercial #8 turnout can run anywhere from $25-$35 each, after building a half dozen turnouts the Fast Track jig would pay for itself. Rail, PC ties and wood ties are an expense as well but if you buy that stuff in bulk it will make dozens of turnouts.

Train Show Acquisitions

I went to the annual Kirtland Model Railroad Show (in Kirtland OH, duh...) and made a couple small purchases. This show is sponsored by NMRA Divison 5.

Since Spruce St is a PRR facility, I need to build up my PRR fleet. While I do have a decent amount of both heavyweight and lightweight passenger cars in PRR livery, I have very little head-end equipment, which I will need a lot of for modeling Spruce St and CUS. I picked up a 2-pack of Walthers PRR express reefers in wartime livery. These were limited run and have since been discontinued, so I was happy to find them and even happier to find them well below MSRP. I'd like to find more of these, and Walthers made them in pre-war, wartime, and post-war paint schemes.

The best find though was the Walthers Modern Coaling Tower kit. The NMRA Division 5 folks had their own table set up at the show and I was quite surprised to find the coaling tower still in shrink wrap for $30, which is less than half what the kit retails for. This will make a nice representation of the Spruce St coaling tower which served four parallel tracks in real life.

My PRR Heritage...

You wouldn't really know it from reading my blog, but my earliest interests in railroading and model railroading were of the PRR. Not quite sure what made me a PRR fan, but it has stuck.

I recently dug out my old "favorite locomotive", which is a vintage (1970's) undecorated Atlas SD35 that I painted and decaled into PRR livery myself. The road number is authentic too for a PRR SD35. I was probably around 14 years old when I did this, which would have been around 1977. I painted it with Floquil Brunswick Green using a Badger airbrush and a can of air propellant. The locomotive still runs in DC (barely) and would need a major overhaul to make it run smoothly, but I remember back then this thing ran great.

PRR Spruce St Yards in HO Scale

Here is a 1937 Franklin map of the PRR Spruce St Yards in Columbus, Ohio. Today the Columbus Clippers stadium is just south of here and the Arena District is just off the lower right corner. I-670 partially follows the Big Four right of way behind the roundhouse.

In the 1940's though, this is where PRR had their passenger locomotive service facilities, a coach yard & repair facility, a Pullman yard & service facility, and the diner car commissary. There was also a power house and machine shop annex to the roundhouse. Freight locomotives and cars were serviced at the St. Clair Av shops which were about 2 miles east of this location at the main PRR yards in Columbus. Columbus Union Station is just under 1/2 mile east of this location.

Depending on sources and time period, the roundhouse here at Spruce St had around 36 stalls. It ceased operations starting in 1952-53 as PRR consolidated their operations over at the St. Clair Av shops in an effort to save money as PRR started to phase out steam locomotives. By 1956 the roundhouse here was torn down and the former locomotive service tracks at Spruce St were turned into the "bone yard" for steam locomotives on the way to the scrap yard. It appears PRR continued to use the coach yard facility for a few years more but as passenger operations were phased out so was use of Spruce St.

Here is my rendition of Spruce St in HO scale. It is compacted in size but not by much; I reduced the overall length and number of tracks but otherwise it is semi-scale. You can see how this fits into my overall 13' x 27' space; it nearly fills up the entire room. I'm actually OK with that though.

This could be a fully operational layout on its own without actually having to model anything else. There would be plenty of switching operations just in and out of the locomotive facilities and the coach yard and Pullman yard. The PRR mainline to Chicago and the Columbus Union Station would be staging and could connect for continuous running if so desired.

In reality, the PRR mainline to Chicago through Columbus depicted in the plan (called the Bradford Line) only saw a few trains in the 1940's - 1950's. Most of the PRR passenger trains through Columbus used the Little Miami Line which split off from CUS and ran a few hundred yards south of this location. Columbus was on the PRR Panhandle Line and most trains through Columbus were headed to Cincinnati or St Louis and used the Little Miami line to go that way.

Nonetheless, I think the above plan would make a great starting project on its own and could eventually be expanded as time & money permit. This would be a great opportunity to get my feet wet building structures and laying track, and it would be all flat so scenery would be fairly simple.