Templot Club Archive 2007-2020                             

topic: 1122Switch blade spacing
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posted: 15 May 2010 08:33

from:

Arthur Budd
 
Dorset - United Kingdom

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I'm building my first P4 track using Templot and I've reached the point where I've got to fix the blades to a turnout operating device. I've decided, for the sake of simplicity, to use Norman Soloman's method as described in MRJ 151. This uses a 2.5mm wide strip of PCB material with brass lace pins soldered to the blades. The spacing of the pins is given as 15.5mm for both EM and P4 but having tried this, it gives a gap between the blade and the stock rail of about 2 mm which, to my untutored eye seems too big.

Many years ago I read an article by Iain Rice where he advocated cut down "Dinky" hair grips Araldited together to give a joint clamp/gauge for setting point blades. This device would give a gap of about 1.3 mm which would seem to be much closer to the prototype gap of about 4 inches.

What do other people use as a blade/stock rail gap in P4?

Regards

Arthur

posted: 15 May 2010 08:38

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Hi Arthur,

The prototype switch opening for bullhead track is 4.1/4". This equates to 1.4mm in 4mm scale.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 15 May 2010 09:27

from:

Arthur Budd
 
Dorset - United Kingdom

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Martin Wynne wrote:
The prototype switch opening for bullhead track is 4.1/4". This equates to 1.4mm in 4mm scale.
Many thanks Martin. On another forum Tim Venton suggested that Norman had got the P4 spacing wrong at 15.5 mm and that he has used 16 mm, which of course would decrease my near enough 2mm gap to about 1.5 mm. Much closer!

Regards

Arthur

posted: 15 May 2010 11:44

from:

Nigel Brown
 
 

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Arthur

If you're using flexible switches, the tightest spot is likely to be a bit further up the switch blade from the tie bar. If your rail flexes more than the prototype (which is also likely to use multiple tie bars which tend to decrease the problem), you may need to increase the gap a bit. Easy to check.

cheers
Nigel



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