Plug track at the S Scale Society

I displayed some Templot plug track at the S Scale Society AGM today....

 

[Martin Wynne]

@Michael Woods

Hi Michael,

That looks great. Thanks for flying the flag.

Was that with loose jaws?

cheers,

Martin.

 

[Michael Woods]

@Michael Woods

Hi Michael,

That looks great. Thanks for flying the flag.

Was that with loose jaws?

cheers,

Martin.

Hi Martin - as James said - we should be thanking you. I am a fixed Jaw person, I find that there is enough meat on the chairs in S Scale to handle sliding in the V crossing and associated check rails all in one go without breaking anything. I put the chairs in the timbers, shape the rails and then slide in from one end using a small pair of smooth pliers to encourage the end of the rail into the chairs without exposing the chairs to too much stress.

I just need to complete this turnout with some insulated joiners that I have drawn in CAD. Plus look again at the length of the check rails, it may be the camera angle.

I agree for more complex trackwork loose jaws would be a must but for my simple layout I can get by on fixed.

Timbers are printed on my Anycubic Vyper with PuraSlice.

 

[Michael Woods]

Finished off two turnouts that are a mirror image of each other....I had to make some small adjustments to the check rail chair clearances, just bringing them in a few thou so that scale wheels with scale flanges passed smoothly through the turnouts in both directions. Given the tight radius on my planned layout i may (where appropriate) shift the drive from the rear axle to the middle axles so that the rear axle can move side to side more freely unconstained by motor and gerbox.

It is an absolute pleasure putting the plug track together.......everything just works.....

 

[Michael Woods]

My first attempt at chair heaving.....sprung catch point to prevent run away stock on the main line....will try and get this on the printer tomorrow evening....

 

[Michael Woods]

My first attempt at chair heaving....nice and simple sprung catch point. I removed some chairs and replaced a few S1 with S1J chairs.

If anyone has any photos of the mechanism associated with a sprung catch point then I would be interested to see - thank you in advance.

 

[Michael Woods]

Now completed both of the catch points required for the layout.

 

[Michael Woods]

Now that most of the turnouts are built, small delay before I start to lay all the track. Thanks to Templot plug track, all my turnouts are now built to a common standard. Therefore, I am taking the opportunity as I build my layout to move all my stock to the same prototype tyre profile....over the years I have used different tyres from different sources, all of them either exact or very close to S Scale Standards but now is the time to standardise everything. 3D printed wheels running on 3D printed track....that feels good.

 

[Rob Manchester]

Michael,
You seem to be one of those people who can turn there hand to anything they want Are you machining the wheel tyres yourself ?

If so do you use CNC or a profile form tool ?

Rob

 

[Michael Woods]

Hi Rob, my model making skills are pretty basic, I try and 3D print everything I can and keep everything very simple. This particular tyre I drew in Fusion 360, created a STEP file and then got a company to CNC for me. Similar items are available through the S Scale Society Stores.

I have really enjoyed working with Templot plug track, it has been a steep learning curve but very enjoyable. It is amazing the way everything works.