Turnouts

I haven't written in here for a few days. I've been busy building turnouts. I've constructed quite a few over the years, but before starting a new track laying project, I always find it useful to review the articles and books I've acquired. I'm sure most of you have a library of magazines and materials, as I do.

There is Model Railroader, of course, which I've been reading since grade school. Between years of subscribing and swap meet acquisitions, I've got quite a few issues. Also, we lived in Portland, Oregon from 1975 to 2001 and the main public library there has an extensive archive of that magazine, including the original 1934 issue. I photocopied it and a ton of articles, drawings, etc. I have organized this material into files. Also on my train room bookshelf are many copies of Railroad Model Craftsman, the old S Gauge Herald and S Gaugian, plus some copies of Trains from the mid-1940's. When I need to add a structure or car, these publications are a great resource.

Anyway, back to turnouts. I use No. 6 turnouts; I'd like to use No. 8s, but they just take up too much space. As it is, for a small layout I'm using pretty large radius curves, ranging between 36" and 45", and No. 8s just wouldn't fit in my scheme. Because of the 28" shelf width, I can use Caboose Industries manual ground throws. I also use "hot frogs" so there's smooth running through the frog. I tried insulated frogs on a couple of previous layouts, but didn't like them as well.

My first handlaid turnouts were constructed following an S Gauge Herald article by Richard Karnes. I bought the article in reprint form from the Herald (obviously, this was a long time ago!). In the mid-1970's, I had the privilege of being part of an S scale group that visited Mr. Karnes' Seattle-area home and I saw some of his turnouts, which were in a section of track from a previous layout he'd had. He was about to start a new layout, I recall. His handlaid track was the finest, most realistically detailed I've ever seen. And his article is a resource I value to this day.

That article, as I said earlier, is one of many I refer to before getting to work on track laying. There is so much to learn from other modelers!