Points AKA Switches

Graham

Graham

In Smoggy Land
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Conventional wisdom appears to be that you connect in the points using rail clamps so that they are easy to remove for maintenance. Humm just tried to remove the LGB standard rail joiners to see that they appear to be spot welded and immovable:sweating: am I missing something....a art from a few screws :rofl::rofl::clap:
 
There is an art to removing the rail joiners. My method is to use a small screwdriver to gently prise the joiner away from the rail then using a pair of pliers grip the joiner and then pull downwards. the joiner will then come away from the rail. You will soon get the knack once you have tried out removing a few joiners.
 
As above open the joints with a flat head screwdriver...players pull it down..
 
Mike and Martin are both correct about the technique; the LGB joiners are retained by a vertical tab that goes down into a slot in the sleepers.... prise the sides of the joiner apart with either a screwdriver or pliers, then grip the bottom of the joiner in the pliers (you'll need fairly fine-nosed ones) and apply a downward twisting motion - the joiner retaining tab should then slip out of the slot in the sleeper and the joiner will pull off. The tab makes it nigh-on impossible to simply pull the joiner straight off. Once you've done the first one, it will all seem quite obvious and all the rest will take just moments each.
Don't even try to recover the joiners for re-use - while I suppose you COULD spend ages trying to bend them back into a useable shape, just buy a new packet.....

Jon.
 
I use an Exacto knife to cut away the back of the plastic slot, then flatten the brass tab with a screwdriver, then it is easy to pull the joiner straight off with pliers. I think there's less risk of damaging the track, and I have spare rail joiners. Cheap, me.
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I don't think I've had to remove a point / turnout for maintenance.

The manual operating mechanisms can get gunged up from time to time, but they're removable without messing with the track.

There's not much to go wrong - apart from Aristo's polarity switch on the #6 turnout which is a barking mad device which I never managed to fathom out, and which has been removed :punch::punch:

...........and as for LGB's rail joiners :lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed:
 
Rhinochugger said:
I don't think I've had to remove a point / turnout for maintenance.

The manual operating mechanisms can get gunged up from time to time, but they're removable without messing with the track.

There's not much to go wrong - apart from Aristo's polarity switch on the #6 turnout which is a barking mad device which I never managed to fathom out, and which has been removed :punch::punch:

...........and as for LGB's rail joiners :lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed::lipssealed:
Click to expand...

With LGB R3 turnouts I've found that the spot welded connections between the short rails either side of the frog and the main rails sometimes fail.
Also the screws that form the blade pivot may need attention.
 
One of the best bit of advice I got (way back in GSM days) was using railclamps. I've had a couple of maintenance issues to attend to on both my Piko and Aristocraft turnouts, no LGB ones here so can't speak of them. I do think though for the relatively small investment in time and dollars it's worth doing. :)
 
One other point to be mindful of when removing LGB joiners by the methods described above are the plastic tie plates with the simulated spikes, holding the rail to the ties. On some older switch tracks i have broken those spikes when removing the joiners. Most likely due to the plastic being older and maybe a bit brittle. If the plastic is cold or old try warming it a bit with a hair dryer first.
 
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