Model Railway Forum

Smaller image is brill. The wing rails do guide the wheels. A simpke point can be made without them but probably would not be ideal. The simplest points that I habe seen are the single blade points. If you look at the lovely narrow gauge railway system on this short film you will see some excellent views of single bladed pointwork. (Now you can see why I like narrow gauge).

https://youtu.be/du-n0E3i648

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:44 pm So it is a loco fault not the points.

I'm thinking it's because the Heljan 28 is pretty heavy and, combined with the smoothness of the motor, it won't let any points bully it?

Whereas, the front pony wheels on some of the steam loco's seem to be very light and loose and easily led astray, as is the case with the class 40 I think.

I heard the Hornby class P2 steam loco is particularly sensitive to points because of the very light pony truck wheels. Just something I came across by accident, please don't shout at me

Ha ha, great video MG.

If you had those points you could have a OO gauge boot on a stick to kick it over

8 coupled wheels are unlikely to help. Correct Back to Back is essential for this model

Postman Prat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2019 9:57 pm 8 coupled wheels are unlikely to help. Correct Back to Back is essential for this model

As I'm finding out.

Lovely model loco, but very unforgiving on some points though.

Track laying is more than often the cause of problems. Track needs to be laid on a firm flat surface with the track joined accurately. If it is laid well locos will travel on it without 'many' problems. Generally points will not cause problems.

Thank you for the link MG, I now have a different perspective of NG. I found that very interesting to watch
Jim.

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:13 pm Track laying is more than often the cause of problems. Track needs to be laid on a firm flat surface with the track joined accurately. If it is laid well locos will travel on it without 'many' problems. Generally points will not cause problems.

Noted, thanks WTD.

And thank you for everyone's input.

Newbies like me learn fast from the experts on here

Unfortunately commercial turnouts are made to accept many variations in wheels - tyre width & flange depth.

Ideally tyre widths & flange depths work well when flangeways are all the same and especially at the frog point, tyre widths are in reality, wide enough to bridge the gap and be supported by rail all the time. This can be achieved in the model as well but one has to accept having all the same wheel profiles.

DoubleDiamond wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2019 9:50 pm Ha ha, great video MG.

If you had those points you could have a OO gauge boot on a stick to kick it over

Actually made one and it worked well. However as I wanted to try to make a conventional two bladed point I used the main structure of the singlw bladed point and then worked on it from there, making a proper frog and the blades etc.
I don't have any pictures of the single bladed point but I can share what it looks like now. (It is the one on the bottom right).
When it was a single blade point, I simply soldered the singlw blade to a little bolt and drilled a hole in the board to take it. Washers were used to adjust the height. Two nuts locked onto each other adjusted the tightness and I could add an arm underneath to operate it remotely if desired.
The rebuilt point along with other points which are made to the same design operate by a spring on one side (To return the blades to one position) and I hook a little piece of fishing twine to the other routed via little resin wheels I made to reach a lever frame to pull the blades in the opposite direction. The designnis such that if I needed to I can remove the blades from the rest of the point for cleaning etc, the pivoted end held into position by using railjoiners cut in half. (Short railjoiners tend to allow for movement, ideal for these point blades).