Same process as the first two crossovers – using the Tim Warris notched rails method. The only mistake/customization I made was to make the outer guard rail further from its running rail due to the extreme curve of the track. But it looks interesting and works really well. The trucks run smoothly through the crossover without any issues.
First the running rails. I decided to do the curved rails first because the rails are hard to handle on the curve. It’s best to do the fiddly work with the other rails where there is less tension.
The inner guard rail is tight to the running rail. I needed to have the wheels to not have too much room to play otherwise they would have got caught on the frogs. This meant however that the opposite guard rail needed to be further from the outer rail. Not the best outcome but works fine.The notched rails went in first. By now I really have got the hang of it. Working with metal gives you plenty of time and room to slowly move and fix and grind things into place. I took a break of 15 minutes between each section of work as it can get tiring hunched over this for too long.All the rails are in. I soldered and filed the gaps so the rails are all nicely joined.And finally I opened the gaps to allow the trucks to navigate from all directions. Once filed and cleaned up all worked really. The trucks move smoothly across the crossover from both directions. At the end of all this soldering the project can look quite messy but I’ll tidy up the work tomorrow and with a coat of paint it should look much cleaner.It’s much easier to work on this kind of project on the work table. I was able to get really close to the crossover to make adjustments and fine tune things.
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THE NEXT DAY!
After a night sleeping on the issue I’ve now woken with a clearer head and have taken another look at the crossing. The question is can I live with the uneven spacing of the guard rails? It is now really starting to bother me. If I want to redo it then it only takes an hour but I’m going away Monday for two weeks so this might have to wait until I get back. I’ll decide what to do and when to do it later today.
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DECISION
I’m moving on. I haven’t got the stomach to redo the crossing. When viewed from the side it will hardly be noticeable and I’ll just learn from the experience. Next up is the final turnout and then assembly of all the components.
