Grovenor Sidings, Railway Modelling Pages by Keith Norgrove
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Grovenor Sidings, techniques
Point Construction, part 2.

August 2011

Since starting in P4 back in 1968 I have built track using the ply and rivet, or Brook Smith system that was then the only system on offer. This system is still a viable method of making trackwork and this page attempts to show how I do it. 

I have tried to minimise the words and let the photos tell the story as far as possible, more detailed information can be found in the Protofour Manual section 4.

Assembly continued
Wing rails
The next part to fit is the other wing rail followed by the check rails then the closures and blades, which I have made in one piece. The wing rail is bent up as a mirror image of the first one, tried in place and cut to length.

wing rails
     
wing rails
Then using a combination of track gauge and crossing flangeway gauge soldered in place.

wing rails

Check rails
check rails
The check rails are bent up to match the template.


checks
Then soldered in place using the check rail gauge, if you just have the one gauge solder one end at a time.
checks



Point Blades

You will notice I have skipped actually filing up the blades, for some reason I missed taking photos of this bit. I'll try and rectify next time I make a pair. Meantime you can check out Tony Wilkin's methods here.  Then continue with a pair I made earlier.

blades

Make the blades a bit over length initially then cut to length carefully, with the blade tip just covering the first slide plate and a nice gap for insulation next to the wing rail.If you end up cutting it short the blade can be cut back to the heel joint and a seperate closure rail used


blades
  After confirming that the rails are a good fit against the stock rail and don't create any tight gauge spots in the planing length solder them in place, I habitually solder in the straight rail first but it doesn't matter.
blades


blades
Both blades fitting nicely.

completed

The turnout is complete.

complete

Slide baseplates from Bill Bedford were used and can be seen in the pictures. In this example I used the traditional group of 3 rivets under the vee as recommended inthe P4 Manual, normally I would use the Vee baseplates included with the slide baseplate fret. Use of these can be seen on my track relay page.
All soldering used solder paint with the assembly being scrubbed clean under the tap when complete. The last two picture show the turnout after removal from the template and scrubbed clean. The scrubbing usually finds one or two unsoldered joints which can then be repaired.
washed

washed-close up
After this stage and before laying the timbers will be stained. Cosmetic fishplates and chairs can be added now or after laying, there will be a bit of soldering needed to attach dropper wires for the electrical connections and for the tie bar, best not to fit any plastic parts until that hot work is finished.

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Copyright Keith Norgrove.
Last revised: August 16 2011