Archive for May 14th, 2010

Yup, as I said soon I would have my next post so here goes.

Well I have gone completely insane (not that that was a difficult step for me), I am going to try and hand-lay my track work on my layout. I had purchased a jig and tools from Fast Tracks a few months ago and am now making my own #6 code 55 turnouts. I was quite surprised as to how easy it was to get use to making my own turnouts. The jig and proper tools make much of work effortless and take most, if not all, of the guess work out of building these critters.  I was reading an article in Model Railroader Magazine a couple months ago on how to eliminate shorts and make your factory turnouts DCC friendly. Thinking this would be a good idea as I could learn what to watch for and correct any issues as I build my own. As I read through this article, every issue was already eliminated using the Fast Tracks system. Tim has really done his homework on these things.

I have been looking at this system for a few years now but never really sure whether to purchase one or not and one thing I have noticed with Fast Tracks is they don’t just make a product and say “here it is”, there are many videos on how to do it well and they are either making there products better, adding different tools to make construction easier or making new products for hand-laying track. They are most definitely a growing company with a clear vision of where they want to be.

I have around 18 of them built so far (without ties) and setting aside. I only have a few more to built then I will be ready to start laying out my yard. I am seriously considering hand laying all the rail in my yard and if nothing else I can at least say I have tried.

Here are a few pictures of the tools and the actual turnout.

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See Ya

Al