3. The Switch
From the outset I'd wanted to be as faithful as feasible to the real railroad. To that end, I fabricated my first turnout using a template I shot with a homemade camera stand, taking an image every several feet.
I then stitched the images together to make a template.
As I'd learned from prior efforts, PC board ties are prone to failure if eated too much, so I decided to try a very different approach: solid brass ties made from brass bar stock. (If I had it to do over again, I would not have done this.) I started with a slab of PC board to which I attached the photo-template.
I then carved slots in the PC board for cardstock separators to keep the tie halves from shorting out as I soldered them in place.
Next, I soldered the rails to the brass ties.
The points were soldered at the hinged end to steel wire that dropped down through the ties and roadbed. A connecting bar underneath actuated the wires to operate the points.
The frog was quite complicated to assemble, with the brass ties cut into three segments. Note that the geometry is faithful to the prototype.
I filled in the gaps in the ties with CA before painting and ballasting the turnout.
Imagine tackling this:
