Some more tramway pointwork

[tramcar trev]

I'm getting good at this now.... I constructed Queens Sq in the workshop and its so much easier screwing things down, laying out the rail and soldering inside....

The cossover will go in front of my Cinema and will allow cars to get on/off the City Loop as well as act as a City terminus....​

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this is the jig I made to wind the springs for the points, version 10.3.8

 

[themole]

That looks good, Trev, I'm back in the UK, so I will be building a few more cars for my tramway. Alyn

 

[MRail]

this is the jig I made to wind the springs for the points

Do tell more about springing points. I'm still having trouble.

 

[Railfan]

Great explanation with the pictures, Trev. It is coming along well. Keep posting the pictures and updates.

 

[tramcar trev]

this is the jig I made to wind the springs for the points

Do tell more about springing points. I'm still having trouble.

Well a picture says a 1000 words. Here is a shot with the blade out. As can be seen the blades pivot on a short length of 1/16" tube and the return spring is soldered to the blade and makes the blade spring back to its "closed" position. This makes repairs and servicing/cleaning easier and as there is no where for dirt and grunge to go it builds up, so the blade lifts out and the hole can be cleaned... Th spring is a little 3 ring coil with long arms, one end is bent and goes thru a hole in the blade and held in by solder the other end slides onthe fixed rail and applies the necessary pressure.

Do you like my City Terminus/crossover thats my most ambitious task yet...
There is also a shot of my depot fan in full size, I'm working on some G scale drawings to build one, the tricky bit is going to be the overhead frog.....

 

[dunnyrail]

Great work as always Trev. I have been interested in Tramways for some time, even going so far as starting a 00 one many years ago. That fell by the wayside before completion sadly.

Re overhead frogs, I guess that by now you will have done quite a bit of work on design. However to my knowledge (of reading others articles in Tramfare and other places) with poles and I guess that is the way you are going you appear to have two otions:-

- Automatic
- Switched

With the automatic what I understand you have to do is set up Temporary overhrpead, run your Tram round the route with the Pole up, see where it dewires and put your frog around that point.

The switched one I assume may be a biypt more forgiving in that you could mount it slightly earlier, you make a U shaped entry grove with slots at the top. Then a n "Airoplane" shaped piece that slides to and fro. This has guide slots which push the pole. With your depot fan this may be somewhat more complex than the ones that I have seen built. You then need some control wire a high level to move the "Airoplane" back and forth.

I think the one thing that is vital for both systems to work properly is that all your poles react in a similar way. Fine if all your cars are say Bachman, but could be tricky if you are using different makes.

Me so far my overhead experience has been with pans in HOm and the Ruschbahn. Simples in comparison.

Good luck,

JonD

 

[tramcar trev]

Somewhere in the Tramway Catenary thread there is a URL to a brilliant site on how to set up overhead and gives the offsets for curves and gets down to the nitty gritty about the centre of the poles being over the centre of the bogies etc....

 

[MRail]

Trev,
Thanks for the gen on point springs.
It's a different "approach", and I'll see if it can be adapted to Peco SM32 track.