Hinged switch blades - any ideas, please?
- Thread starter jonte
- Start date
jonte
Western Thunderer
Hah, hah....
I’m an old hand at posting without the link, Les. Good to see it’s not just me
Many thanks for sharing.
Jonte
Hobbyhorse
Western Thunderer
This is what I've done on my ON30 points, these are very short switch blades with the pivots at both ends.
Simon
Simon
jonte
Western Thunderer
Now, these look the bees knees, Simon.
You are obviously of an engineering bent, and I’m guessing you have access to a lathe?
Very impressive.
I’m afraid I’m a little wet behind the ears, so please forgive my ignorance when I say that I’m not quite sure how all this goes together. I’m guessing that in the first shot, we have a set of three male and female connectors that (rather than fix to the foot of the rail via a drilled hole as I was cogitating) fit into the rebate in the rail that we see in the first and second shots?
In the third shot, it looks as though a washer has been soldered on to allow the mechanism to pivot and retains the fitting on the moving sleeper (or tie in your case
).Also, what function do the raised pins on each perform? Perhaps belt n braces for the soldered joint again the rail?
Apologies for all the questions, Simon, but my knowledge of such matters is limited plus I’m also intrigued.
Thanks for sharing.
Jonte
Hobbyhorse
Western Thunderer
Now, these look the bees knees, Simon.
You are obviously of an engineering bent, and I’m guessing you have access to a lathe?
Very impressive.
I’m afraid I’m a little wet behind the ears, so please forgive my ignorance when I say that I’m not quite sure how all this goes together. I’m guessing that in the first shot, we have a set of three male and female connectors that (rather than fix to the foot of the rail via a drilled hole as I was cogitating) fit into the rebate in the rail that we see in the first and second shots?
In the third shot, it looks as though a washer has been soldered on to allow the mechanism to pivot and retains the fitting on the moving sleeper (or tie in your case
Also, what function do the raised pins on each perform? Perhaps belt n braces for the soldered joint again the rail?
Apologies for all the questions, Simon, but my knowledge of such matters is limited plus I’m also intrigued.
Thanks for sharing.
Jonte
Jonte, I'll try and keep it simple.
The pins and washes have been machined on my lathe, but you could do the same thing with commercially available small rivets and the washers used with BA type nuts and bolts.
Each rail is slotted to allow the large end of the pin to solder into the recess,keeping the bottom of the rail level with the underside of the pin, this ensures the top to be at the same level as its adjoining rail. The recess also give a better area to solder to giving a much stronger joint.
A little bit of careful marking out and drilling is needed to fit the pins through the sleepers, I tend to drill the holes slightly under size then open them up with a broach so that the pins fit with a bit of resistance when pushed through. Solder the washers on fairly tight to the bottom of the pins pressing against the bottom of the sleepers. I've found that the switch blade move very freely.
Simon
jonte
Western Thunderer
Hi
The photo shows my way of making hinged blades on sharp points.
This one is 32mm gauge and uses code 100 rail for light railway effect.
As can be see there is, in effect a second tie bar which is pivoted with the bit of wire soldered to the adjacent sleeper.
Not necessarily the prototype way but simple and reliable and not noticed once the track is painted & ballasted.
All these points are made the same way.
Regards
Allen Morgan
The photo shows my way of making hinged blades on sharp points.
This one is 32mm gauge and uses code 100 rail for light railway effect.
As can be see there is, in effect a second tie bar which is pivoted with the bit of wire soldered to the adjacent sleeper.
Not necessarily the prototype way but simple and reliable and not noticed once the track is painted & ballasted.
All these points are made the same way.
Regards
Allen Morgan
jc2001
Western Thunderer
There was an article by David Nicholson in MRJ where he uses C&L cast brass fishplates as the hinge and an ingenious very prototypical tiebar arrangement which means the blades stay in place and cannot rise up - this is for bullhead track in 7mm. I've used it very successfully. The MRJ index shows no 227 of 2013 as the likely issue, but I thought it was more recent than that. For narrow gauge I use homemade flexible hinge blocks as described in my track articles available from here: REVIEW Extras - Finescale 7mm Narrow Gauge Trackwork
John
John
jonte
Western Thunderer
Yes, I see what’s going now, Allen. It took me a while with my limited intelligence, but I think I’m right in thinking that you’ve employed the swivel at the closure rail end to reduce the stress on the traditional ‘fixed switch rails to swivelling tie bar’ method at t’other. Clever.
Just shows there’s definitely more than one way to skin the proverbial moggie
Thanks for sharing.
Jonte
jonte
Western Thunderer
Thank you, John,for the heads-up re MRJ - I shall dig it out.
I’ll enjoy poring through the attached article too with something soothing
Let’s just hope the images of small kettles and beat up track don’t tempt me down another path. I’m easily distracted
Jonte
Hi Jonte
That's right. The blades are soldered to the tie bar in the normal way and also works the c/o micro switch for crossing polarity. Then looking to the right is a short sleeper which is held in place with the bit of wire bent down through it an soldered to the next normal sleeper. The crossing end of the blades are soldered to the short sleeper only so the whole lot just pivots.
As I said not prototypical but simple and reliable. Should have explained better first time. Writing instructions when you know the answer is not easy.
Regards
Allen Morgan
That's right. The blades are soldered to the tie bar in the normal way and also works the c/o micro switch for crossing polarity. Then looking to the right is a short sleeper which is held in place with the bit of wire bent down through it an soldered to the next normal sleeper. The crossing end of the blades are soldered to the short sleeper only so the whole lot just pivots.
As I said not prototypical but simple and reliable. Should have explained better first time. Writing instructions when you know the answer is not easy.
Regards
Allen Morgan
jonte
Western Thunderer
No probs, Allen. My brain appreciates the occasional bit of exercise.
Some real left-of-field thinking there, Allen.
Good stuff.
Jonte