MRH
Questions, Answers and Tips
for free) and some patience you can lay a turnout freehand. Eventually you can purchase the jig and speed up the process. I remember how intimidating my first turnout was; just getting started was the hardest part. Don’t forget to photograph your end product and post it on the MRH web site so we can share in the accomplishment. And above all, have fun! — Lew Matt
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: How do you hand-lay turnouts? I am in High School and have a limited income. Paying $15 a turnout is a stretch for me. A: I can certainly sympathize with your financial predicament. If you are careful with your measurements, patient with your filing and soldering, you can turn out a turnout without spending much money. After you make a few, you may even prefer handlaying to purchasing a ready-to-run turnout. You will need some basic tools and supplies that may cost you more than $15.00, but once you have assembled all these materials, you can make as many turnouts as you want.
You will also need to purchase or salvage the rail and other parts for the turnout. Do a Google search on hand laying turnouts, hand laid turnouts, hand lay switches and so on. There are two different paths you can travel to build your DCC friendly turnouts: using PC ties soldered to the rails, or rails laid directly on the roadbed with wood ties, using spikes to fasten everything in place. Take a look at the Fast Tracks site (URL: http://www.handlaidtrack.com) to get a handle on what to do and where to buy the rail parts you need. The jigs for sale at this site are great helpers, but with an NMRA gauge, vice, a file, one of Fast Tracks paper templates (which you can download
Page 45 • Issue 5 • Jan/Feb 2010 • MRH Questions, Answers and Tips, page 1
Q: I just became the proud owner of 120 pieces of HO rolling stock and 6 different locos. I’m a skilled cabinet maker, so I’m trying to decide what I should build for a model train layout. Where should I start? What type of track plans should I consider? A: Welcome to the fascinating hobby of model railroading! The question of where to start is a common one, so let’s see if we can help point you in the right direction. First, it’s best to start small and “plan to throw the first layout away”. In fact we discussed this approach way back in issue 1 of Model Railroad Hobbyist and even suggested a new term for this approach: chainsaw layout. When first starting in the hobby, you really don’t know what you don’t know. The worst thing you could do would be to embark on some mammoth layout project only to discover part way in that your skills and knowledge have so
improved that you’d rather just throw it all out and start over. So job one is to get some experience, and you do that best by getting some basic hobby training and then doing the hobby in an experimental fashion for a time. A modular group can be an especially good way to get your feet wet, because the scope of what you’re trying to do can be as small as a single module, which is a perfect size for a beginner. You’re also likely to have others willing to help show you the ropes. We also recommend you hook up with other modelers and get some experience running trains on other layouts, especially those who may be into the more serious prototype ops side of the hobby. You may just find (like some of the MRH staff) that prototype operations is so much fun that it can become a strong motivator for everything else in the hobby – it can build a fire under you to get more done, in other words. Until you have some operation experience under your belt, you also don’t have the insight necessary to understand what all those tracks really do on a track plan. Just going for track arrangements that “look cool” rarely results in a layout that satisfies long-term. Once you have some experience in the hobby, both in building a layout
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