Mechanical Point Control - hints and recommendations please

my favourite for very small layouts is a stiff rod under the baseboard, with a wood or plastic handle sticking through a thin metal plate. The bottom of the handle is slotted twice, the slot sitting on the metal plate to loch th point in place. Lift and pull/push the handle to move it & let it drop back on the other notch.

I use a DPDT slide switch mounted under the turnout with a stiff wire out to a knob on the fascia. Another wire up to the throw bar. Here's a link to a slightly different approach, he ran the second wire over to an under table lever instead of up through the center of the throwbar, but the rest is the same.

I use caboose Industries "ground throws". They come in a variety of models, including some that have contacts that you can use to ensure powered frogs (vees), etc. They are oversize for HO, less so for OO. If you are willing to adjust the point throw, ot build your own turnouts, the ones for made for N scale are just right.

I've also used tried point rodding under the layout, as mentioned by by Bob Harvey, but it too fiddly for my taste. YMMV.

Some people like Peco turnouts because the built in spring holds the points securely when you push the points over. Very handy for quick installation --> operation. You can test other methods later, as time permits. Be sure to get the finescale points, the "universal" ones will give trouble with modern wheels.

HTH Wolf K.

Fiddly? Almost certainly, but I need remote control for at least one point, and want it for aesthetic reasons for some of the others.

Thanks,

Eric

Interesting. Almost none of my points are parallel to the baseboard edge. I will have to experiment.

Eric

Turns out I have a Mercontrol kit bought years ago for experimenting and never touched, so I will have to try it now.

I should probably get a Modratec WIT to try as well - this will not be a layout for full interlocking.

And if the points are not parallel to a baseboard edge? Presumably the pull/push needs to be in-line with the tie-bar of the point, so are the rods at different angles when they emerge, or will some sort of angle-crank be needed?

Eric

On a minimal cost layout using Peco Steamline points, I used my own version of Mercontrol - the spring wire used to hang net curtains into which I fed soft iron garden wire which was a sliding fit. This was inset into the baseboard surface and could run in gentle curves from the baseboard edge to end at rightangles to the point. The end of the garden wire was fed under the point base and bent in a right angle to fit into the existing hole in the point throw bar. No need for angle cranks and it worked over a distance of six feet.

John Woods

I recall reading, many years ago, a suggestion to use Bowden cable (as used for cycle brakes/gears) for a mechanical linkage to turnouts.

Nick

It might be worth looking at the model aircraft section of a good model shop. They often have a good selection of wire ,cranks,cable length,adjusters, linkages etc that are used for the control surfaces and building retractable Undercarriages. Far more components available than the railway modeler might realise. It's useful to look at components from another hobby occasionally to get ideas that can cross pollinate. I used some steering arms like this

to mount some slow acting point motors under the track bed of an outdoor layout. The hole through the track bed would have let rain run down and probably into the motor. Some brass tubing and an arm lets the motors sit in weatherproof enclosures made from a margarine/butter tubs. Any rain just drips clear off the tube and arm. The arms fit on the end of a piece of brass tube sleeved inside another which lines a hole through the trackbed. and are fixed with the inbuilt hex headed grub screw. This makes fine adjustment very easy,important when you are semi upside down with the trackbed only about 12" above the ground.

G.Harman

On my current small layout, mine are. But the version I sent a link to should work with any angle with (I forget the name) one of those triangular pivots to change direction.

I think a large vertical change, as in up at the top of a mountain switchback, would be more of a challenge. You'd need two pivots for horiz-vert and back plus possibly another to change direction. I might try a flexible cable for that application.

Since the wire was soft enough to bend around the curves, did you have any problems over time with the right angle changing from the pressure?

Don't forget the way Ratio operated their signals, with twine through screw-in rings, The lever was spring loaded in one direction to take up any slack, and there was a spring at the signal to take up slack in the other direction. I've seen this used for points.

Have you looked at Blue Point turnout control from New Rail Models. See

They used to be available from Bromsgrove Models, but they are not on their web site at the moment, although all the linkage stuff still is. See

"Snakes" from RC aircraft suppliers.

"Slippery sid" from model oils

Maybe the same thing).

Brass rod in tube

MBQ

Scalefour society lever frame kit. Makes most others look and feel very "average". Release catch works to allow lever to be pulled, spring and throw action is beautifully weighted. Works mechanically or electrically. Fairly cheap at around £20 for five levers. But you have to assemble it, and it needs precise soldering work.

- Nigel