Shinohara scissors crossing

I finally got round to mounting this. Comments: the sleepers are (as expected) narrow for UK outline, they are HO code 83 I think, this can be kludged of course. Joining was easy using standard fishplates, but I had to file out a short section in the middle so I could Z-bend it to get the rail tops level. It's the thickness of a piece of 300gsm card, not exactly a problem to make up, I think I will solder as well for stability. No centring springs so you're going to want Tortoise motors and remote mounts (available as a pair but you need two additional remote kits), these work fine and are reasonably tolerant of the inevitable small difference between the throws of the various blades. Ballasting is a bugger, though, you have to be more careful than you'd believe. I recommend cutting out the additional card under the thrownbars (code 100) or filing down the bed under the throwbars (code 75/whatever).

Is it easier than building a scissors crossing from stock components? Yes. Is it easier than scratch building? Also yes. But it's not exactly straightforward and not cheap either.

I will post some pictures when I get round to it.

Oh, also, from the "playing trains" department, I have to report that I absolutely love the Seuthe smoke generators. Watching an 8F steaming into a tunnel - well, I love it. Guy

It's possible to build a scissors crossover from Peco trackwork. I built one using 4 2' radius turnouts and a 24 degree crossing. The rurnouts need trimming back - basically the curved route rails from the turnout frog need to be removed and the Peco crossing outer rails replace them. The curved stock rails need to be shortened further so that the crossing inner rails and end frog(s) have somewhere to be. Some rail fixings on the curved route need removing as do the sleepers beyond the turmnout frog(s). The major hurdle to get over is thinking that the rail ends of the turnouts and crossing need to be aligned. Problem number two is to avoid having any two short pieces of rail connecting. Problem number three is the wiring - actually it's relatively simple - treat the crossing as a separate block wired to the four turnout frog switches and then limit the point positions so only one crossing route at a time can exist.

52mm track spacing is possible.

Greg.P.