| Long
before I joined the club, three members, Lenny Rossow, Mel Gooch and Ken Bain,
built our switches. Once a month or so a trailer was brought to Lenny’s home and
the new switch or switches were delivered to the club. They did an excellent
job, and most of their work is still in use today at Adobe Mountain Park.
Today, building switches at MLS is a group project.
We have numerous and very talented members in our organization so we have
decided to pool our resources. I can assemble and have ready to install 3
switches in one weekend, thanks to several other members volunteering their
expertise in advance. MLS has currently over 245 switches on the ground, and at
least another 70 planned. With this kind of volume, one person could never keep
up with the track laying crew. My most sincere thanks go out to all that assist
in this process.
Starting from the ground up, Bob Douglas & Bob Alkire keep track of the ties
in the switch barn, pre-cut all the ties for future use, and then have them sent
for pressure treating. Frank Behrle does the milling of the stock rails &
points. Cliff Fought supplies the frogs he designed & builds. They can be seen &
purchased on his website -
http://www.whistlestopfabrications.com/ . Cliff designed his frogs to be
plug & play, as the rail joining up to it needs no milling, and simply bolt onto
the frog, as you will see later in this article. Bill Pardee & his son assemble
& weld all the throws together, and paint them. Tom Knorr supplies parts for the
frogs, points & throws. Perry McCully cuts and shapes all the guard rails.
Various members, who wish to remain anonymous, donate all the nuts & bolts used.
Al Ford, construction superintendent and one of the parks founders, organizes
and oversees track laying. He gives me an order list of what switches to make.
Also, he taught me all I know about switch building. Recently Al titled me as
"Master Switch Builder", but I will always consider him the master and myself as
his apprentice. |
 Now to get started. Here you can see
the switch jig we use, which is 18’ long and 24" wide. The spacers are 2 ¼" x 6"
and 4" on center. The 2 cuts on both sides of the jig are for the 48" throw
ties. I start by laying out all the ties needed for either a #7 switch
(60’raduis) or a #9 (100’ radius). We use #9 switches on all of our mainline
passing tracks, and #7s for yards and stub sidings. All of our mainline tracks
have 100’ radius minimum curves. We are building a left-hand #9 today for the 3rd
passing track on the new Far Flung Flats branch, and will be switch #252 at MLS
(click photos to enlarge). |
| After arranging the ties for either a left or a
right switch, I then attach a 1" flat steel bar to the end of each tie. This
keeps everything in line during the construction, as we do not bend our rail.
Without the flat steel bar, the switch would end up as a wye (click photo to
enlarge). |
 |
| I start by securing the straight stock rail. I
pre-drill holes in the foot of the rail, opposite where the rail is milled for
the points. I use a 1" aluminum spacer between the stock rail and the steel bar
when screwing down the rail with 1"x #8 sheet metal screws. Where there is no
milling, one screw on each side of the rail in needed. |
 |
| Here you can see the straight stock rail completely
attached to all ties, and the points lined up and the frog in place with gauges.
The curved stock rail is just laid in place for now. |
 |
 This photo shows the points. We use
standard 1" steel "C" channel, milled on one side to form the point. Hinge tabs
are welded on the heal end and the throw tabs on the toe end using a jig.
Because of the length of a #9 point (44") we use 2 stabilizer bars further down
the point to connect both points together to reduce stress. For #7 points (24"),
stabilizer bars are not needed. You can see one of the tabs to the right. The
machining and welding performed on the C-channel, sometimes results in warping.
Prior to installation, I sight down both points ensuring the straight point is
actually straight, and put a gradual bend in the curved point. This is done so
the transition between the point & curved closure rail is undetectable. |
| The next step is to place the frog. I set the
points in place, gauged to the straight stock rail and measure from the heal end
of the point to the point on the frog, 88" for a #9, 66" for a #7. I get the
frog positioned as close to this measurement as possible, while keeping the tabs
underneath aligned with the ties. You can see where I used a router to cut ¼" of
the tie out for the bottom plate of the frog to sit in. Because the rails bolt
to the top of this plate, it is lower than the top of the ties and some tie
material must be removed. |
 |
| With the frog gauged in place, next we measure for
the length of the closure rails. I measure to determine the length of the
straight closure rail and add ¼" for the curved closure rail on a #9, and 3/8"
for a #7. This measurement varies depending on where the frog is placed. |
 |
| After cutting the closure rails to length, I bolt
the points to them. All the bolts & nuts used on our switches and rail
joints are stainless steel and all nuts are nylocks. The end rails are measured
next which will attach to the frog. We use a 24" offset on our switches and
track panels. |
the completed closure rails and points, using a 10-32x5/8" hex
head bolt and 10-32 nylock nut
|
| The next step is to attach all 4 rails to the frog.
I found it easiest to elevate the frog and rails so I can align the rails,
insert and tighten the ¼" x 1 ½" bolts and ¼" nylock nuts. |
|
the underside with the rail and hardware in place |
the frog back in place and gauged |
you can see the frog secured in place with 1 ½" #8 sheet metal screws. |
securing the straight closure rail is accomplished with gauges and track screws |
|
| Once the straight closure rail is done then I have
to eyeball the curved closure rail until there is a perfect transition from the
toe end of the point all the way up to the frog, and then secure it with track
screws.
The curved stock rail is screwed into place using the aforementioned 1" track
screws, gauging it to the curved point and curved closure rail, again drilling
holes in the foot of the stock rail where it is milled for the point. |
both closure rails secured in place
|
 The next to the last step is installing
the guardrails. Here you can see one end of the guardrail attached. I laid out
the parts we use to attach them. Shown is an 8-32x1 3/16 hex head bolt, 5/8"x ½"
spacer, a #8 washer and a 8-32 nylock nut. The screw, washer and nylock nut are
again stainless steel and the spacer is aluminum. We use old worn out rail and
remnants cut to 18" for the guardrails. We cut 2" off of one side of each end at
10 degrees and buff the sharp edges with a flap wheel. We find this easier and
faster than bending the rail at a 10-degree angle. Both are prototypical. |
| Here is the attached guardrail with track screws
holding the inside of the rail. You can also see where I pre-drill then screw
down the stock rail through the foot of the rail next to the frog (1 ½" #8 sheet
metal screws). This eliminates heat expansion problems during the summer (where
it can get up to 125 F at times out here in the desert). |
|
|
both guardrails completed
|
|
For the throw assembly we use 1" flat steel bar,
bent 90 degrees at the end with a ¾" brass bushing threaded in to receive the
tension springs seen at the bottom of the photo. The points have a tab welded on
the end, with a ¼" threaded stud pressed in. I hold one point off ¾" from the
stock rail and have the other point touching the other stock rail, mark the
throw bar & drill a ¼" hole for each stud.
starting the throw assembly |
the throw bar attached to the point studs with ¼" nylock nuts |
|
|
 This photo shows where I have screwed
in the throw on the long ties at the proper distance, pressed on the tension
springs, and adjusted the throw rod (1/4" stainless steel all thread rod) with 2
¼" nylock nuts and ¼" washers. Notice we use a plastic tie where the end of the
points rides. This is for ease of point movement. Oil will not soak into the
plastic as easy as wood will. You will also notice I have installed 1/64" shims
under the stock rails. This is to add a small gap between the ties and the
points, also for ease of movement. You can see 2 of these shims on the bottom of
the photo captioned "starting the throw assembly".
|
| Here you can see the throw assembly completed along
with the 2 stabilizer bars installed I mentioned earlier. All of our switches
are designed for the engineer to look at the throw handle to see which way the
train will go. We also affix reflective tape to the throw handle for night
operations. |
 |
| Here you can see the completed switch. I have
inserted 3 - 26" and 2 - 28" ties at the end of the completed switch as the last
step as they do not fit into the jig. Once they are attached this switch will go
out on the stack and I will start another. 252 down, 70+ to go. Ahhhh! Job
security at its finest. |
 |
| Nit Pickers Beware!!! I have been told
from visiting Live Steamers that the hinge tabs we use to connect our points to
our closure rails won’t work. "They will eventually break". I have built over
130 switches at MLS over the past 3 years, and all of the switches are in use,
ALL using this same steel hinge tab. It is securely welded to the point and
bolted to the stock rail. We have had absolutely NO failures. Also, we have
over 100 of Cliff’s steel frogs in use, again with no failures. We discovered
the aluminum frogs wear out at the point of the frog and break where the rails
bolt to them. I have 5 broken/worn out aluminum frogs in my scrap bucket to go
to the recyclers. I know I will be replacing many more in the future.
And for those of you who insist on calling them "Turnouts" I apologize. At
MLS, we call them switches.
Well, that’s the whole process of building switches at MLS. This procedure
and our materials seem to work best for us here in the southwest desert. It
takes me about 3 hours to assemble a #7 and 4 hours for a #9, again thanks to
the efforts of several MLS members ahead of time. If you have any questions or
suggestions, please email me at
whlowe@qwest.net. Thank you.
Written by Bill Lowe |
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