The Little Switch, Part 1

As I'd noted previously, I must fabricate my own 55mm switch, since they're not going to hit the street until the end of the year. With the stone viaduct installed, tracklaying rocketed forward; however, much of it still hinges on having this switch done. So it was time to take a seat at my workbench and start destroying perfectly good track parts to make the switch. Brings to mind the old saying, "You need to break some eggs to make an omelette."

Using techniques I'd employed in a different scale, I chopped up two sectional track parts—a straight and a curve—into three pieces of roadbed that would then be reassembled like a puzzle to form the switch roadbed. Here, a full-size paper template was invaluable.

One rail from each track part was inserted into the roadbed, and the parts were test-fit. When all of the roadbed pieces were fitting together perfectly, I disassembled them, ground the rails for the points, and reassembled them for the last time. To add strength to the joints, I bonded a splice plate to the underside of the roadbed parts.

With such short rail parts, I needed to provide as much stability as possible, so I permanently bonded rail joiners into all of the openings, save one: the geometry is such that the two joiners at the frog actually overlap a little, so one joiner will have to be omitted (this will not prevent the corresponding track section from being attached; it will simply require extra care).

The switch had reached a point where it could be test-fit on the layout. I'd also started work on the frog by soldering two pieces of rail together to make the frog point. However, I had to stop work: I needed to take some time to ponder how to make the rest of the frog, and I was out of time for the day.

Meanwhile, having now become intimate with this switch, I've come to realize that Rokuhan has set themselves a seriously ambitious task; getting this little thing to function will be a Herculean challenge. Consider: there's barely enough room for a frog, and they'll still need to have separate stubs of rail extending from it—rails that must also be selectively powered. Then there are those colliding rail joiners. Plus they still have to cram all of the guts in their current 110mm switch inside to power it. No wonder they're not done yet.

My challenge isn't as daunting. Most significantly, the switch machine for mine will be external, hidden under the adjacent elevated track. The rails extending from the frog won't need to be selectively powered; I'll be installing insulated joiners on the one-piece frog, and the sections of track connected to them will be selective powered instead—much easier. But I still have a considerable body of work yet to be done, so stay tuned for Part 2.

Back < Index > Next

Copyright © 2011-2021 by David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.