How to build turnouts without jigs

In this video I'll show how I build my N scale turnouts from scratch.
Video on hand-laid track basics: • How to hand lay track ...
Fast tracks library of downloadable print out templates: www.handlaidtr...
Used tools and materials:
Micro Engineering 17-040 Code 40 rail
Micro Engineering 42-110 Code 40 3 point track gauge
Fast Tracks CH-N-X CopperHead N scale pre-gapped PC board cross ties
Fast Tracks CopperHead N Scale PC Board Turnout Ties - 1/32"
Fast Tracks N Scale Unfinished Wood Turnout Ties
Music:
Track: Girls Just Wanna Have Sun - Broke In Summer [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus
Watch: • Girls Just Wanna Have ...
Free Download / Stream: alplus.io/girl...

[@nedmerrill5705]

Very well done! I wish I had this 10 years ago when I started building my own turnouts.

[@Lucidor561]

Excellent instructions. I have made 24 turnouts for my home layout where I used FastTrack's fixtures, but it seems to work just as well without. Keep the videos coming my friend.

[@cdjhyoung]

The Fast Tracks jigs are a real help, but the fixtures I find the most useful are the point shaping tool and the frog jig. They really make creating those pieces go fast.

[@tommurphy4307]

we have a guy in our N scale club who builds his own fixtures from wood and he does awesome work. his pieces work better than the other guys' stuff and they use the aluminum fixtures. i'm the motor man and i hope none of my club members see this....

[@Michael-1955]

Very nice workmanship, love scratch building (really anything) and handlaying trackwork a favorite. Love to see a future segment on your under table turnout linkages control... Great channel, (Mike)

[@roydrink]

When I had my layout, I was most proud of my handmade turnouts.

[@handlaidtracksand3dprinted922]

Amazing skills and process! I started with FastTacks jigs but ended up making my own 3D printed jigs and tools. I'm EU and there can nearly be 100% added cost with shipping and import fees for their jigs. Forces you to be quicker and use less heat or the 3D printed jig melts...

[@tommurphy4307]

that sounds like a challenge i don't need.

[@rjordans]

That looks great, I'm trying to find information on how to do this for scale 1 and this has been the most useful video so far. Thanks!

[@stumpytrain]

Brilliant, clear guide. Thank you for sharing!

[@MultiBeepBoop]

Great clear video, I've tried building a few of these using the Jigs now and you effort turns out very cleanly, well done! Since i'm going to be putting all my turnouts to use soon I'd love any more videos on the finer points of hand-laid track!

[@ModularRailroading]

Thanks! Is there anything specific you have questions about?

[@MultiBeepBoop]

@@ModularRailroading I'd love to see more about any problems or difficult/complex things you may have run into and how you solved those problems.

[@ModularRailroading]

I see. Other than making sure that the surfaces of the PCB ties are clean before soldering nothing comes to mind right now. Hand laying track really is mostly a patience game once you get the basics down.

[@baronjutter]

A very good video that makes each step very easy to understand, thanks to this video I know I'll be buying atlas turnouts and not trying to make my own :)

[@cdjhyoung]

Every commercial brand of turnout has some issue that will need to be addressed to get flawless performance. The Code 55 Atlas turnouts are no different. You may find you will want to to sharpen the point rails to eliminate the blunt end they have. Plan on sanding the bottom of the turnouts before installation, there are frequently casting marks that interfere with the turnout laying flat. The frog area should be checked to make sure all the flange ways meet NMRA specs. They may need to be adjusted with a file. Lastly, set the turnout on a dead flat surface, like a pane of glass. Check for bowing. Hold the turnout flat, and run a straight edge across the frog. Atlas Code 55 turnouts are notorious for having too high frogs. This too can be filed down. That said, I like and use the Atlas Code 55 line of track and turnouts myself. But here's the point: All commercial turnouts take time to inspect and correct the issues they have. This could be a few minutes or hours depending on how much needs correcting. Building your own turnouts correctly the first time may not be as time consuming as this three hour time frame makes it sound. And you will have a much better product when you are done.

[@vincenthuying98]

Great tutorial on using FT templates to build turnouts or points. Definitely gonna try out your method. Although I like to build my turnouts on my workbench. This allows for the cuts around the frog to be made with a jewelers saw. Which provides a smaller gap and is a more accurate way of cutting the nickel-silver rails. Nothing wrong with the Dremel. Just like the accuracy of the jewelers saw better. Thanks 🙏 for sharing.

[@coxsj]

Nice! It's actually ~3 hrs to build AND install the turnout, which is very comparable to using an FT jig. Great vids. Keep 'em coming!!

[@kevin0007]

Excellent video. Very clear, very effective. Especially since you're making N-scale turnouts! Nice work. I have one fast-tracks jig but want to also make other sizes of turnouts. One idea you may want to try: I noticed you're using a Dremel diamond wheel to cut the gaps around the frog, and you said sometimes the rails un-solder. Have you tried the Dremel fiber-reinforced disks? They run much cooler so there's less chance of melting solder. The gap is larger, but so far I haven't had an operating problem. Also, the gap can be filled with plastic if you want to. I use the Dremel EZ409 thin-kerf blade. It leaves only a 0.020-inch kerf. Since it's fiber-reinforced it won't explode like plain cutting disks, but doesn't generate as much heat as a diamond disk. And it's way faster than cutting with a coping saw like fasttracks instructs.

[@ModularRailroading]

Thanks! I think the problem with the solder joints isn't really heat related. I try to use as little solder as possible and sometimes it's just not enough to withstand the vibrations while cutting the rail. At least I didn't have the problem with any joints that hat a good old blob of solder 😀 I haven't used the reinforced disks for cutting rails. I've picked up the diamond disks at a local store a couple of years back because they are really thin. It says 0.2mm on the packaging, so a little less than 0.01". I guess at the end of the day the type if disk doesn't matter all that much. The types you mentioned are all good options I think.

[@tommurphy4307]

theyre called cutoff wheels- i love those things! yeah- i think theyre thicker than 2 thous.

[@mpeterll]

I've built turnouts without jigs for decades, but it's easier with the fast-tracks jigs (and especially the filing guides). What surprised me is that you didn't take the opportunity to fix the most serious problem with the FT jigs and templates by adding a copper tie right under the Vee.

[@andrewlaverghetta715]

Can you please explain this more along with your reasoning?

[@mpeterll]

@@andrewlaverghetta715 The fine tip of the vee one of the more delicate areas of a turnout and also the most critical for smooth operation. It must be in exactly the right place. A fraction of a millimeter off, and it'll cause derailments. Thus, it should be properly anchored with a soldered tie so that it cannot get bent out of position. Furthermore, if it or one of the wing rails are slightly out, it's a lot easier to correct with a file if it doesn't flex with every file stroke. I've built hundreds of turnouts using the fast-tracks jigs and have developed methods to get around this design oversight, but it would still be better if the jigs included a copper tie under the vee.

[@handlaidtracksand3dprinted922]

I added a second copper tie along the frog path so that short rail has two soldered joint and not just one. I designed and 3D printed all my jigs for N scale after first starting with FastTracks #6 3 Way and #4 turnout jigs. Always wanted curved turnouts!

[@tommurphy4307]

when i want to whip a layout together in a hurry- i admit i use atlas turnouts- peco for longer ones or curved ones. i'm getting lazy (and old...and blind).

[@ModelRailClub]

Great video. Thanks for sharing it.

[@marcusc3463]

Love this video, I hope you continue to make more

[@GreatBowlsAfire]

Simply amazing 👍💯💕

[@chrisdraper5067]

Agree with your sequence. Although it is a personal thing, I never understood Fastracks method of both stock rails before the frog. Nobody seems to have come up with a way of pre-measuring closure rails though, and it would take some of the guesswork/tediousness out of switch construction IMHO. Very good video - thank you.

[@royreynolds108]

Theoretically, you should be able to build a turnout to scale by using scaled length rails. Most railroads have and use standard turnouts or use the AREA designed ones.

[@cdjhyoung]

May I make one suggestion? Clean surfaces are really important to making a good, quick soldier joint. In the other video you show sanding the ties until the PC ties are shiny. That is really important. The other thing you should do is to shine the bottom of the rail you are using with some emery paper before you try to soldier it in place. You will be amazed how much easier you can get the soldier joint you want when all the surfaces involved are clean, bare metal.

[@handlaidtracksand3dprinted922]

Never thought of shining the rail bottoms! Thanks!

[@jamessbca]

There are basically two chapters of my life… before and after I realized how easy soldering is when everything is clean 😂. I like the green scouring pads. Super fast and easy.

[@rafalacalufes]

Muchísimas gracias por el video y la información compartida! no hay nada mejor cuando se comparte conocimiento y más cuando es en algo que nos fascina a muchos!

[@richardquebec5850]

Wow super tu est génial, merci beaucoup. A un prix résonnable en plus 👌👍

[@dunialaki4239]

this is amazing job. thank you for sharing this, brother!!👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿

[@danielfantino1714]

Really impressive work and good tutorial. Congrats !! Now, for a real challenge, try with T. T is half Z scale !! Just wonder if someone will try in Tn3..?

[@tommurphy4307]

when they come out with 'ZZZ' scale, we'll have to use a microscope.

[@kosskrit]

Great video, I might try it with code 40 rails and cheap jigs for filing stock and point rails from British Finescale Association (Finetrax).

[@tommurphy4307]

and gold solder- don't forget the bling.

[@calumbrubacher7352]

Great tutorial, it made me start to get into hand laying n scale track. I was wondering, do you use flux when you solder?

[@ModularRailroading]

I use solder with a flux core from Stanol. I don't think the exact type matters that much. So no additional flux. Having clean surfaces before soldering is important though. The PCB ties get shiny from sanding the ties after glueing them. But the underside of the rail might be a bit gunky. A quick pass with fine sand paper or file should fix that. I also crank the temperature of my soldering iron way up, because it's relatively low power and the rail can quickly move the heat away. I have it running at 450°C(840°F) and work as quickly as possible.

[@tommurphy4307]

the guys in my club use a liquid etchant on the rails and ties. all i know is it's expensive and they sure go thru a lot of it.

[@jaybeckham]

It seems the PCB are the same thickness as the wood ties. I work in O scale and the PCB are about half the height of the wood ties. So trying to see if I can glue the PCB to a thin strip to get to the height of the wood ties. Any ideas? Thanks for the video.

[@ModularRailroading]

I suppose you could try to shimmy the PCB ties by glueing them on top of thin wood strips or cardboard. The heat from soldering shouldn't be much of a problem and after ballasting everything is securely glued into place.

[@tommurphy4307]

if its about half- stack em and file em to the right height?

[@fiddle12001]

is the tool you're laying on the track helping to keep the spacing correct? And where can I find them. I'm just starting to build turnouts and had trouble with the frog alignment on the first try.

[@ModularRailroading]

Yes, those are 3 point gages made by micro engineering. They have an entire range for many combinations of track gauge and rail sizes. I know that modeltrainstuff.com carries them, but they should be available at a lot of other shops as well. These gages aren't super precise though, so you should double check with an NMRA gage.

[@craco77]

Is there an ebay store that sells all the equipment needed to hand lay track gauges, rail, wood ties. Brass plates etc.

[@ModularRailroading]

I don't know of an ebay store that sells all the items. I got most of the stuff from a mail-order in Germany and some things directly from fast tracks in Canada.

[@craco77]

@@ModularRailroading ok thanks. I did find some rail and ties on ebay and some turnouts without the ties. I also looked at the fast tracks website. Thanks for video, it inspired me to try myself.

[@KeithHeilner]

This was excellent. Thank you for sharing. I do have a question. What if you need a turnout that requires you to custom build one that does not fit into an existing paper template? In other words, a #7.5 turnout?

[@ModularRailroading]

Thanks! I think the difference between two consecutive turnout numbers is not that drastic and building turnouts on paper templates leaves enough wiggle room to adjust for specific situations. That's one of the reasons why I like to build turnouts right in the spot where they are needed. If I needed a turnout for a spot where the incoming track is already in place I'd probably just print out the templates for different turnout sizes and eyeball which one is the best fit. If you solder the frog rail for the diverging route to match the existing track the turnout should work just fine. As long as track alignment, gauge and flange ways are on point you can get away with quite a lot. I've accidentally build turnouts that weren't even properly straight and they work just fine.

[@tommurphy4307]

you get the crazy guy i commented about earlier and show him what you want and then be nice to him.

[@andrewlaverghetta715]

Hello! Can you share more info about the tweezers you are using? “Locking tweezers” doesn’t get a ton of hits that I would call reliable. Thank you!

[@ModularRailroading]

I looked a bit around. Apparently cross jaw tweezers or holding tweezers are also names used for these tools: www.knipex.com/products/precision-tweezers/universal-cross-jaw-tweezers/universal-cross-jaw-tweezers/929590

[@handlaidtracksand3dprinted922]

@@ModularRailroading I know them as hemostat. Is a medical clamping instrument.

[@andrewlaverghetta715]

@@ModularRailroading Thanks for suggesting these 8 months ago. I picked up something very similar not long after that. I've made a couple N scale turnouts trying like this but I wasn't really good at it yet. I've worked with the Fast Tracks fixture and I've gotten a lot better with everything, including soldering and testing, so I'm curious if I could go back and try it like this again and be better at it. It's funny, but I also ended up buying fixtures in HO scale and it's so much easier, of course being twice the size. I'll eventually go back to N scale and make some turnouts, but I wanted to finish some for my upcoming HO scale switching shelf layout. The N scale, if I have the room for it, will be much more involved, and I'm in no hurry with that.

[@tommurphy4307]

@@handlaidtracksand3dprinted922 back in the 70's, youngsters used them as a roach clip- or so i've heard....

[@joeww2168]

Thank you for sharing your methods. What type of switch control do you use?

[@ModularRailroading]

I'm using the blue point switch machines from micromark to actuate the turnouts and power the frogs. They're a bit costly but a lot less finicky than the home made mechanisms I used to build out of SPDT switches mounted to angle brackets.

[@tommurphy4307]

there's a guy in ontario, canada who makes piezoelectric turnout controls and i recall buying 20 of them and i got 2 assembled controls and we had 18 kits that we had to build, we are still using them on my home layout. i'll try to dig up the guy's name for you. check back here. the kits and controls were about 220 dollars CDN.

[@nedmerrill5705]

Have you tried resistance soldering? I make my own N scale turnouts also (yours are better than mine, but I'm improving.) and I was wondering if resistance soldering would make for neater work.

[@ModularRailroading]

I haven't heard of resistance soldering until now, so I haven't tried it. I looked it up, but I'm not entirely sure if it would make things neater. Judging from the images the equipment looks a bit bulky. But as I said: I don't have any kind if experience with it so I don't really know what I'm talking about.

[@mynock5012]

Do you use flux at all? Or just straight solder? I suck at soldering, but I've grown equally frustrated with commercial turnouts and how crap quality control has become from all the major manufacturers, so I think all that's left for me is to learn to handlay... Seems 1 out of every 3 turnouts from ME, Atlas, PECO, etc has issues or the frog isn't made deep enough to accommodate even the most low profile locomotive flanges causing pickup issues.

[@ModularRailroading]

I use flux core solder, so I don't need additional flux. Rosin core solder is probably better than acid core solder because there is less risk of corrosion over the years. I'm still using solder containing lead which is easier to work with. It'll be harder to aquire in the future because the industry is moving to use lead free solders that have a higher melting point. I don't see this to be too much of a problem though since soldering rail is more forgiving than tiny electronics.

[@mynock5012]

@@ModularRailroading Thanks for explaining that. I think it's about time to invest in some much better soldering equipment and supplies and take the dive into learning to hand lay turnouts and basic track. Appreciate your channel, thank you for your efforts!

[@tommurphy4307]

i've had a couple of problems with bottoming flanges on peco turnouts and they are down with exchanging them- at least they were with me. i have never had that problem with atlas turnouts. i sent peco one of my wheelsets to verify it and, of course, they sent it with the replacement switch. always try them out before installing or modifying them.

[@matthewesler8379]

What is tool on is on the end of the dremill when you make the frog

[@ModularRailroading]

That's a silicon carbide grinding bit. These bits have a very smooth surface so they don't leave deep grinding marks in the rail.

[@dragonrider4292]

What is the website were you get your template?

[@ModularRailroading]

Fast tracks has a library of track templates on their website: www.handlaidtrack.com/track-templates

[@daleroth236]

Why not copy and print how many turnouts you need and that way the wet glue will not matter.

[@56NeilWatson]

Really great tutorial but was the annoying 'music' necessary?

[@jhonny1392]

Mmmm . . . the frog section remains *unpowered all the time* This is NOT GOOD !. Not good at all !.

[@ModularRailroading]

I solder the feeder wire for the frog while working on the frog. That's why I drill the hole for the wire at 2:35

[@jimcarr9810]

How do you attach the rails to the wood ties

[@ModularRailroading]

I don't attach them at all. Even Code 40 rail is strong enough to stay in place after it's soldered to the PCB ties.