Building a new yard ladder and a set of #10 for the thoroughfare tracks gave me a chance to re-evaluate my process of building turnouts.
In a previous blog post (here), I mentioned that fact that I use a cheapo Harbor Freight benchtop belt sander to help me shape points, frogs and toads. (Extra credit if you know where a toad is used)
I have noticed that getting the frog points sharp enough so that wheels don't fall into the gap is tougher than I realized.
What I found that works much better is to start with the benchtop sander, as before, but then finish with a large mill file to really bring the rail to a sharp point.
When you do that:
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| Side by side comparison. |
Old process in rear - note the gap between the frog point and the point rails that angle away to start the guard rail portion.
New process in front - look at how much longer that frog is!
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