Sunday, August 08, 2010

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Micheal writes "Just got my NMRA N scale gage. Already have my woodworks rails and sleepers and a plan in my head. Would you be able to do a detailed post on how you build your points? Just want to see how you do your switch blades and tie bar."

I've covered this back in the early posts on trackmaking but I should really revisit this whole thing as some of my methods have changed a wee bit since those heady far of days of being a trackmaking virgin. I still have to think of a way to combine the methods used here in Nelson with those applied in other areas. These are to build the points on a bench to a standard type and then force the track layout to fit them. The Nelson method (which I think owe a fair bit to the British though I must ask the guru at some stage about this) lays out the curves and then builds the track to them, which gives curves running smoothly through pointwork without the sudden sideways movement.
I'm not quite sure how to do this just yet, but I think it could involve a roller gauge that is notched in the center so that the track can be laid with the notch lining up with the drawn track centerline. I'm not quite sure how to adjust this to pointwork without the track templates that I use. Maybe we could get some laser cut in some non melting material like formica or similar.

So to summarize, I'll have a crack this week and take lots of pictures of what I'm doing.

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