As I was marking track centerlines to lay the cork and track I wasn't happy with one area of the layout just before the track enters a tunnel to the track elevator. Past the coal mine and heading to the elevator I wanted a small edge of town scene with a train station and three to five small industries that would need service. The double track mainline comes out of the tunnel to a double crossover where trains can either move to the town side of the mainline or the thru side of the mainline. A modified curved turnout is going in after the crossover to quickly get a single track down that will parallel the main line and lead to some industries. This was done to make the space available for the town as large as possible here. I now had a fairly large area just to the right of the double crossover where I wanted to put a grain elevator. I needed to get a track into that area as efficiently as possible that wouldn't make a road leaving town have to cross two tracks and also wanted the two track to the elevator to be on the backside of the elevator. To accomplish that I'm going to put a #6 LH turnout on the inside main track and have the track off of it that will go the the elevator cross the other track. To accomplish this I'm modifying a Fast Tracks paper curved turnout template so that the one side of the turn straightens out (shortening the curve). Then Fusion 360 was used to make a template for the crossing that has a shallow curve on one side and ends up straight on the other side. It is also at an odd-ball angle of a little under 35 degrees on one side and a little over on the other side of the center. I was then able to overlay a Fast Tracks 30 degree crossing on top of the design to help with tie spacing and electrical isolation cut locations. I wouldn't of attempted this when I first started building turnouts but now it is in the realm of something I'll try. Hopefully posting before it is finished won't jinx it. Flex track and being able to build your own turnouts and crossings opens up a lot of possibilities in designing and building ones layout and can add to the fun. If you have considered building turnouts I hope that you give it a try. I had considered coming off the town track to the industries where the scissors are in the image above and bring the track from there into the area where I wanted the grain elevator. That had a number of disadvantages over what is what I'm trying to accomplish shown above. Starting to see how things might work with some Fast Tracks paper templates that I manipulated a little. Next a full size template was made. The Fusion 360 template was designed and size also to full/actual size. There are other alternatives to doing this than using a CAD program and maybe even faster. . Hand-cut PCB ties were held in place on the template with double-sided tape. One can buy the ties from a source like Fast Tracks or they are very cheap and easy to make with simple tools as shown ( HERE ). The templates are your guide but only that. Use the three point track tools shown above ( I should of gotten these to begin with), a couple gauged trucks and for sure a NRMA gauge (not shown). Start using those religiously and you will have nice trackwork. On most of the crossings I'm doing now I no longer always make the frog points like I do the frog points on a turnout, meeting at a taper. The angle is so shallow that it is hard to file and solder the joint. This is especially true of the thru rails and guard rails. I'm now using the method shown above and in the next three images. . Using the approach shown above is easier and faster to do and when finished I believe looks just as good. There is a much more detailed description for using this approach ( HERE ) and if you are building crossings maybe take a look and see what you think. I'll also have more detailed pictures of the crossing that is being build here on the next page of the build. Sumner
Part 2: . . . I have about 5 tool boxes that are probably about 100 years old now. I believe that most if not all of them were made by my great uncle who was born in the 1880's and worked most of his life building sheet metal items. They are professionally made but don't appear to be mass made. My dad gave me his tools before the passed away at 94 (was born in 1907) and a number of his tools came from his uncle, my great uncle. I still use some of his tools almost daily but forgot that he had a lot of small files and rulers. Some of which are shown above and that I'll start using more often as they are better than what I've bought. He worked in power plants his whole life and ended up being a general foreman in charge of keeping things up and running at the last plant in St. Louis up until he retired. He was meticulous in everything he did. Me not so much for most of my life but starting to finally working on picking up his habits. Going to start building turnouts? Good but have the tools above to start with. I waited on the 3-point track tools for a couple years and should of bought them at the beginning, or at least as soon as I started building turnouts using paper templates. . I changed coping saws form the first one I had that had one adjustment for the blade tension to one with two adjustments for blade tension. I found the second one to be a lot better at tensioning the blade. If the blade isn't taught you will struggle making the isolation cuts. The good news is that the better coping saw is about the same price. You can find more info on the saw ( HERE ) and a link to the saw itself ( HERE ) or search for “Megacast GERMAN STYLE JEWELERS SAW FRAME” . . . I had a lot of hours in the double crossover to the left above and not sure I'll build another one unless it works really well. I have three days (partial days) in designing and building the curved turnout/crossing combo to the right. I'll have more time into putting the wooden ties in and will need to design and print the 'diamond' for the center of the crossing. I have some diamonds you can print ( HERE ) but this will have to be a custom one since the angle isn't standard and it is straight on one route and the other route has a slight curve to it. You can solder rail in but I found it hard to do considering you need isolation cuts in it also. The printed ones don't conduct electricity so they can be printed and glued in. Soon I'll also post some pictures of the diamond for this crossing. I'm happy with how this turned out and I think they will make much better use of the space for the grain mill vs. anything I could of bought or the normal turnouts and crossings you can find templates for. Sumner
Crossing Diamond: The diamond didn't take too long to design since I could cut one up I had already made and use a cross-section of it to build this one. Could do it again now in 10 minutes but took about an hour as I had to refresh myself on how I did it originally a year or more ago. . . . . . I'm happy with how this turned out and I think they will make much better use of the space for the grain mill vs. anything I could of bought or the normal turnouts and crossings you can find templates for. Sumner
