I’m building my own turnouts, but I can’t find the reference specifying the guardrail gap. Memory says 0.163 inches, but I want to be sure.
I ain’t sure what the gaps "supposed " to be, I just leave enough space to get a spike in between them.
I found on HJ’s site that he uses 2.5mm, which equates to 0.11 inches. I’ll give that a look, but will probably go with the 0.16(3) inches. 0.11 seems kind of tight, to me.
The Aristo track/wheel gauge is supposedly the same as the NMRA standard, and provides a gauge for the guard rail. If you can find one, they are rather good gauges, in spite of the fact that Aristo never followed the gauge in their products…
If you read the standards a bit, you will get 0.102 for NMRA “proto”, and the “standard” specs say use this.
G1MRA “standard gauge” 0.120 (as opposed to proto)
I use about 0.110…
If you have gauged your wheels right, you should be able to use any of these…
0.163 is too wide, but will allow you to have more undergauge wheels, or overly thick flanges.
Even with “wide” flangeways, improperly gauged wheels will cause problems. Don’t have to tell you whose motor blocks these are:
0.16 inches, now that I have it installed, is too wide. But, its already installed, so I will probably leave it. I’m going to cut the rest of them down to 0.13, to allow for other people’s stuff to run. I’ve checked B to B on almost all of my stuff, so I should be good to go.
Its my considered opinion that the Enema Ray standard of 0.11 inches is to narrow to be practical.
To put this in perspective, we are only talking about a couple of 1/100’s of an inch. Scaled up to prototype (1:29), even 5/100’s scales to 0.145 inches. Not much, in the grand scheme of things.
Gentlemen: May I suggest a gauge, I have a Simpson Gauge that I have had for several years. It will measure the flange way gap for you. Also, check the G1MRA site the the stndard.
Paul
Paul:
If you read my post, I quote the G1MRA standard… and give the numbers.
Since Russ Simpson has passed away, I could not find specs on the gauge, but I have found a few of them for sale that say specifically not to use on 1:20.3 track, it is for 1:24 scale.
Steve:
Do you have a lot of people running undergauge wheelsets on your layout? Actually too wide of a flangeway should work BETTER with the undergauge wheelsets.
Regards, Greg
When I built my switches I used 1/8th of an inch. that would be .125. Its not per anyone’s standard, but it worked for me.
When in doubt I do like Greg said, I look up the NMRA standards.
Steve,
for what it’s worth…
i measured various LGB switches and they all had 3mm (0.118") between the curved rail and the guardrail.
Hopefully also between the straight rail and the guardrail (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
(those rails are called the stock rails)
Greg
yes… but only, where the distance on the curved side was 3mm.
found one R1 switch from the late 1990ies, where both distances are 4mm.
ouch! you could get the Queen Mary through that! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
Greg,
Your kinda full of piss and vinegar tonight aren’t you. Your pickin on everyone.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
On all of my home builts (that’s all I have) I have always just butted the rail base of the guard rail up against the rail base of the stock rail using code 332. It has always worked for me. I have never measured the spacing so can’t say what it is. I drill through the base of the rail to spike in that area.
Nope, that’s just a huge space, and we are all “experienced” modelers. (By the way I was “picking” on LGB, who, last time I checked, was not a person)
but that’s how LGB “rolled”, thick flanges, narrow back to back, flange bearing switches, etc. The “system” works great until you mix brands, and then want more reliability through switches. All the LGB stuff falls apart if you don’t have deep flanges to guide the wheels through the frog, then all of a sudden you need the correct back to back and the right flangeways, and now you have to do work.
Again, I look at this for very reliable operation. If someone always runs a 4 or 5 car train, it’s not such a big deal.
Greg
Well, 4mm is 0.157 (and change) inches, so even that less than the afor mentioned 0.163 inches. I’m using Ariosto’s aluminum track. Butting the rail base together gives me 0.140 inches (3.5 mm)of a gap. Close enough for gummint work. No filing required.
I wish I could remember where I got that 0.163 inches figure.
Steve, I think there was an old standard, but I recall 0.162 for some reason… remember the flip flops the NMRA did for a while?
All I can say is that when I started I could not run more than about 7 cars on my inner loop, after working over the switches and rolling stock, and following standards (I’m sort of G1MRA), 45 cars worked fine.
I’m a believer.
Greg