Turnouts 4 and 5

Fifth post in a series on how to build handmade n scale turnouts, including constructing some jigs to speed up the process - updated from my old blog

Jan 2017

A few days after that router episode I hit on the idea of using my Dremel Tool to grind the turnout points. I probably would have thought of it earlier but I only just got the Dremel for Christmas and wasn’t really familiar with it. I quickly grabbed a short piece of rail, put it in a vice and stuck a No. 409 grinding disk into the Dremel. Success! Time to make another jig!

I also decided to take the plunge and buy some supplies to build proper turnouts and ordered some MicroEngineering Code 55 rail and flextrack, as well as some PC board ties for sleepers and some track gauges.

While waiting for the new rail to arrive I practiced making turnouts with the new turnout grinding jig - which worked rather well. A lot less stressful and quite quick too. I managed to cut the pieces for turnout number five in about half an hour and with practice I am sure this will get better.

When I get the time I will post a step by step guide of how I make my turnouts and some of the tricks I have learned. There are plenty of websites that show how to do it and my method is really just a variation on this. But did I mention my grinding jig works ‘great’!