Thanks for the video as I am about to construct the yard and station of the nene valley railway in oo using the finetrax points and will be doing the double slip turnout I may even make my own videos but seeing how simple this was for you to put together Has really ease my nerves as the kits look as good if not better than peco dear I say Plus they are slightly cheaper than peco based on rails of sheffield prices
Hi James, Fantastic video. I've been tempted to switch to code 40 but I have a query. Does the tie bar need to be held firmly in place when switched? I use SEEP point motors as it stands, which give a burst of movement to one side or the other, then are "switched off" by the CDU, otherwise the motor could burn out. But I've been warned that the switch rails will spring back to one specific position if not held. Since you've used them with and without motors, I wondered if you've experienced anything to this effect? I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks!
They’ll spring back to the diverging road I expect. The servo driven motors I used on Gerald road were nice and gentle for them but not cheap. On Lochdubh I used a bend in a brass rod in a styrene tube to give a bit of resistance - that was enough to hold it in position. Good luck!
@@JamesHiltonCustomModelRailways Thanks James! Been looking at options and it seems viable that I can fashion something simple to help keep them fixed. Appreciate the input!
Thank you for this detailed video. Can you recommend a solution for rail joiners, and baseboard/cassette ends with this track? In the past I've used brass rod and tube and it was a bit heath robinson!
I believe they offer rail joiners in the range? I would be tempted to use aluminium L angle to create cassettes and create a translator piece on the baseboard with then some kind of metal clip (perhaps document clips?) across the joint.
@@JamesHiltonCustomModelRailways Thank you, I've just seen that - I ordered through the 2mm Association for which I'm also a member. Interesting idea to use angle rather than rail at the join. I know that's a style you've used before, do you have a particular video where you go over it in detail?
Hi Tom, I would say yes, modern N is fine on Code 40. I’ve not had to replace the wheelsets in Farish, a Dapol or Revolution to work with this finer rail profile.
SCRATCHBUILT POINTS The methods demonstrated in this programme are both time consuming and expensive. And reveal its unlikely James ever joined a good Model Railway Club. Or he would have learned the tricks of how to build points without unnecessary extras, and the right tools to use ! I can build a 3ft radius point in N scale in about 90 minutes. Costing no more than around £3.50 - £5.00 in parts and solder. The only specialist tools I need to build any point in any scale are 4 x brass Rollgauges, which must also include checkrail slots !!! These are needed to hold rail precisely in position while you solder the rail to copper clad sleepers ! And I NEVER use idiot rail cutters, they will not cut rail properly and will partially pinch the metal, meaning you will have to file the rail ends square. Or run the risk of bad electrical continuity when you slide rail joiners on. Use a mini drill with a dark grey carbonundrum disc. This tool will be needed for many procedures during pointbuilding, and track laying and should be in every modellers toolkit !!! The main reason to handbuild points, is to escape the unrealistic toy train set commercial trap, of being limited to a small number of set radii, virtually none of which are realistic anyway. Because in reality NO two points were exactly the same, as each point was designed to fit the available space, with whatever radii was necessary. There was no such thing as "small", "medium", or "large" in real life. For example a classic double track Junction with two tracks turning left. Requires two left hand points & a Diamond. But the inner left hand point obviously has to have a slightly tighter radius, than the outer left hand point. Or the distance between the two parallel lines cannot be maintained. And no Commercial track system is designed to provide real life parallel track spacing, through pointwork. They are ALWAYS OVERSCALE ! So the method of building handbuilt pointwork realistically means NO KIT every produced is realistic or useful. So why waste money on such absurd nonsense ? I've taught dozens of people down the years how to build points, all of whom were convinced they could never do such a thing. Because they all thought you needed specialist tools and skills, which is pure bunk. All you have to be capable of is being able to do delicate soldering work. And for pointwork you need a 25 Watt fine tipped soldering Iron, such as a Antex XS25, a type I've used for Decades, as the tips are easily replaceable, and there is a choice of tips (use the finest) when they've worn out. Antex the manufacturer is based in Plymouth & have a website ! The other product you need is Copper Clad sleeper strip available from either C&L Finescale (somewhere in the Bristol area). Or SMP at Marcway Models in Sheffield who can be found on the Internet. To build points its best to buy the roughly 1ft long copper clad sleeper strip and lay it on strong double sided clear tape, stuck to the recommended minimum 5mm thick cork underlay. Once the actual rail laying is all complete you then trim the copper sleepers to length using the Mini drill with Carbonundrum cutting disc (do not use metal discs). You also use the mini drill & Carbonundrum disc to very carefully cut through the paper thin copper layer on top of the sleepers to provide the necessary insulation between the rails, and to cut through the rails to provide either a dead or preferably Live Frog, after the point is actually built. The first trick is to build the point in position on the baseboard. NOT ON A WORKBENCH. As building the point on site, will allow you to get your pointwork to "flow" as it does in real life, and of course will help dictate exactly what radii will be needed for each point, as you progress with tracklaying. This also saves a lot of time !!! Never nail, screw or pin ANY track. This will cause micro dips in track & result in problems for loco pick up. Glue track in place using Evostik White non waterproof PVA woodwork glue. When ballasting using a mix of PVA & water, the ballast will then ensure track doesn't move. Being non waterproof PVA it means you can lift and move track later, by adding warm water on the track which will partially solidify the PVA !!!! The word "Frog" seems to terrify modellers, only because they fail to understand you DO NOT NEED a SET ANGLE FROG in British point design, unlike the stupid American system. If you look more closely at traditional British points (not modern concrete sleeper types) you will find that in a left hand point, the left hand diverging track begins BEFORE the FROG, not after it, as in American methods ! Which means the two "V" rails that make up the frog of a left hand British point, has the left hand rail of this "V" curving to the left from the nose of the "V". And the right hand rail of this V going straight ahead. Which means you can build a British point, without even needing to know what radii or angles your actually using !!! The Roll gauges will ensure the curving rail of the "V", follows exactly the curvature of the parallel stock rail. So the construction trick is that you lay the outer stock rails first, with the necessary recess's filed out for the moving blades that are added later. And a slight recess in the trackbed at the position of the moving tiebar. Once these two rails are soldered in place to the copper clad sleeper strip, the exact precise position of the nose of the Frog (the "V") is already set in Stone. Now all you have to do is find the exact position of the nose of the Frog, by rolling two roll gauges, one along each stock rail, from opposite ends of the point until they hit each other. Then using a fine pen mark the exact position of the nose of the Frog. Getting this exact position is important, as this now allows you to build the "Frog" one rail at a time, while the point is in position. Having laid the Stock rails, followed by the "Frog". You now have to produce the moveable blades. The length of rail that's needed to make a blade is from the beginning of the recess in the Stockrail, past the nose of the Frog for 3 or 4 more sleepers. The amount of this rail that needs to be filed, to produce a nice long flexible blade section, is half the distance from the recess to the nose of the Frog. The longer the thinning blade section the less resistance their will be on the motor used to power the point !!! Obviously the blade section needs to be free floating, and a bend has to be put in this rail, to provide the "checkrail" section alongside the Frog. To make the bend, a small modellers "needle" file is used to "score" a slight groove on the inside of the bend in this rail. To solder the blades in position, the section that becomes the checkrail and at least 4 more sleepers towards the tie bar need to be soldered. As much as possible is left free to float to reduce stresses in these movable rails. When both these rails are soldered in place, you need to add the "tiebar". The simplest method is to solder both blades to a piece of copper clad sleeper strip. This will of course require a slight recess in the cork underlay to allow the sleeper/tie bar to move back & forth freely. Lastly the two missing outer check rails need to be produced and soldered in place. Note that to function correctly these checkrails must begin, before a set of wheels reaches the Frog !!!!! For a beginner it is worth using a Peco point as a guide to copy, for your first ever handbuild point. This will help familiarise yourself with all the parts necessary and exactly where each part needs to be. Practice makes perfect !!! Happy Modelling 😝
Thanks for the extensive and well described process - I never made any suggestion that this was a 'how to build all your turnouts' video - just a tutorial on how to build the British Finescale kits. I'd love to see some of your work in N and compare its fidelity to these kits, that provide a quick and easy way of getting the chair detail accurate for the average modeller who wants to go beyond Peco Code 55.
I've just ordered some 2mm finescale Finetrax point kits just to get me started in the gauge, having never made track. This video is very helpful to me as a beginner - thanks James. RME you come across a bit combative but I'd really like to see your techniques demonstrated - have you considered producing tutorial videos yourself? say, to put an Inglenook layout on a small baseboard with all handbuilt track as a starter project?
Thanks for the video as I am about to construct the yard and station of the nene valley railway in oo using the finetrax points and will be doing the double slip turnout I may even make my own videos but seeing how simple this was for you to put together
Has really ease my nerves as the kits look as good if not better than peco dear I say
Plus they are slightly cheaper than peco based on rails of sheffield prices
Good luck with your project!
Hi James, Fantastic video. I've been tempted to switch to code 40 but I have a query.
Does the tie bar need to be held firmly in place when switched? I use SEEP point motors as it stands, which give a burst of movement to one side or the other, then are "switched off" by the CDU, otherwise the motor could burn out. But I've been warned that the switch rails will spring back to one specific position if not held. Since you've used them with and without motors, I wondered if you've experienced anything to this effect? I appreciate any help you can offer.
Thanks!
They’ll spring back to the diverging road I expect. The servo driven motors I used on Gerald road were nice and gentle for them but not cheap. On Lochdubh I used a bend in a brass rod in a styrene tube to give a bit of resistance - that was enough to hold it in position.
Good luck!
@@JamesHiltonCustomModelRailways Thanks James! Been looking at options and it seems viable that I can fashion something simple to help keep them fixed. Appreciate the input!
Relaxing to watch.
Relaxing seems a good way to describe something that traditionally would have scared many of us, including myself.
Great video James, thanks for uploading!
My pleasure, great product Wayne, wanted to show how straight forward the kits are!
Thank you for this detailed video. Can you recommend a solution for rail joiners, and baseboard/cassette ends with this track? In the past I've used brass rod and tube and it was a bit heath robinson!
I believe they offer rail joiners in the range? I would be tempted to use aluminium L angle to create cassettes and create a translator piece on the baseboard with then some kind of metal clip (perhaps document clips?) across the joint.
@@JamesHiltonCustomModelRailways Thank you, I've just seen that - I ordered through the 2mm Association for which I'm also a member. Interesting idea to use angle rather than rail at the join. I know that's a style you've used before, do you have a particular video where you go over it in detail?
excellent video; would standard n gauge rolling stock, including the locos, run on this track?
Hi Tom, I would say yes, modern N is fine on Code 40. I’ve not had to replace the wheelsets in Farish, a Dapol or Revolution to work with this finer rail profile.
@@JamesHiltonCustomModelRailways ok cheers for that.
SCRATCHBUILT POINTS
The methods demonstrated in this programme are both time consuming and expensive. And reveal its unlikely James ever joined a good Model Railway Club. Or he would have learned the tricks of how to build points without unnecessary extras, and the right tools to use ! I can build a 3ft radius point in N scale in about 90 minutes. Costing no more than around £3.50 - £5.00 in parts and solder.
The only specialist tools I need to build any point in any scale are 4 x brass Rollgauges, which must also include checkrail slots !!! These are needed to hold rail precisely in position while you solder the rail to copper clad sleepers ! And I NEVER use idiot rail cutters, they will not cut rail properly and will partially pinch the metal, meaning you will have to file the rail ends square. Or run the risk of bad electrical continuity when you slide rail joiners on. Use a mini drill with a dark grey carbonundrum disc. This tool will be needed for many procedures during pointbuilding, and track laying and should be in every modellers toolkit !!!
The main reason to handbuild points, is to escape the unrealistic toy train set commercial trap, of being limited to a small number of set radii, virtually none of which are realistic anyway. Because in reality NO two points were exactly the same, as each point was designed to fit the available space, with whatever radii was necessary. There was no such thing as "small", "medium", or "large" in real life.
For example a classic double track Junction with two tracks turning left. Requires two left hand points & a Diamond. But the inner left hand point obviously has to have a slightly tighter radius, than the outer left hand point. Or the distance between the two parallel lines cannot be maintained. And no Commercial track system is designed to provide real life parallel track spacing, through pointwork. They are ALWAYS OVERSCALE !
So the method of building handbuilt pointwork realistically means NO KIT every produced is realistic or useful. So why waste money on such absurd nonsense ?
I've taught dozens of people down the years how to build points, all of whom were convinced they could never do such a thing. Because they all thought you needed specialist tools and skills, which is pure bunk. All you have to be capable of is being able to do delicate soldering work. And for pointwork you need a 25 Watt fine tipped soldering Iron, such as a Antex XS25, a type I've used for Decades, as the tips are easily replaceable, and there is a choice of tips (use the finest) when they've worn out. Antex the manufacturer is based in Plymouth & have a website ! The other product you need is Copper Clad sleeper strip available from either C&L Finescale (somewhere in the Bristol area). Or SMP at Marcway Models in Sheffield who can be found on the Internet.
To build points its best to buy the roughly 1ft long copper clad sleeper strip and lay it on strong double sided clear tape, stuck to the recommended minimum 5mm thick cork underlay. Once the actual rail laying is all complete you then trim the copper sleepers to length using the Mini drill with Carbonundrum cutting disc (do not use metal discs). You also use the mini drill & Carbonundrum disc to very carefully cut through the paper thin copper layer on top of the sleepers to provide the necessary insulation between the rails, and to cut through the rails to provide either a dead or preferably Live Frog, after the point is actually built.
The first trick is to build the point in position on the baseboard. NOT ON A WORKBENCH. As building the point on site, will allow you to get your pointwork to "flow" as it does in real life, and of course will help dictate exactly what radii will be needed for each point, as you progress with tracklaying. This also saves a lot of time !!!
Never nail, screw or pin ANY track. This will cause micro dips in track & result in problems for loco pick up. Glue track in place using Evostik White non waterproof PVA woodwork glue. When ballasting using a mix of PVA & water, the ballast will then ensure track doesn't move. Being non waterproof PVA it means you can lift and move track later, by adding warm water on the track which will partially solidify the PVA !!!!
The word "Frog" seems to terrify modellers, only because they fail to understand you DO NOT NEED a SET ANGLE FROG in British point design, unlike the stupid American system. If you look more closely at traditional British points (not modern concrete sleeper types) you will find that in a left hand point, the left hand diverging track begins BEFORE the FROG, not after it, as in American methods !
Which means the two "V" rails that make up the frog of a left hand British point, has the left hand rail of this "V" curving to the left from the nose of the "V". And the right hand rail of this V going straight ahead. Which means you can build a British point, without even needing to know what radii or angles your actually using !!! The Roll gauges will ensure the curving rail of the "V", follows exactly the curvature of the parallel stock rail.
So the construction trick is that you lay the outer stock rails first, with the necessary recess's filed out for the moving blades that are added later. And a slight recess in the trackbed at the position of the moving tiebar.
Once these two rails are soldered in place to the copper clad sleeper strip, the exact precise position of the nose of the Frog (the "V") is already set in Stone. Now all you have to do is find the exact position of the nose of the Frog, by rolling two roll gauges, one along each stock rail, from opposite ends of the point until they hit each other. Then using a fine pen mark the exact position of the nose of the Frog. Getting this exact position is important, as this now allows you to build the "Frog" one rail at a time, while the point is in position.
Having laid the Stock rails, followed by the "Frog". You now have to produce the moveable blades. The length of rail that's needed to make a blade is from the beginning of the recess in the Stockrail, past the nose of the Frog for 3 or 4 more sleepers. The amount of this rail that needs to be filed, to produce a nice long flexible blade section, is half the distance from the recess to the nose of the Frog. The longer the thinning blade section the less resistance their will be on the motor used to power the point !!! Obviously the blade section needs to be free floating, and a bend has to be put in this rail, to provide the "checkrail" section alongside the Frog. To make the bend, a small modellers "needle" file is used to "score" a slight groove on the inside of the bend in this rail.
To solder the blades in position, the section that becomes the checkrail and at least 4 more sleepers towards the tie bar need to be soldered. As much as possible is left free to float to reduce stresses in these movable rails. When both these rails are soldered in place, you need to add the "tiebar". The simplest method is to solder both blades to a piece of copper clad sleeper strip. This will of course require a slight recess in the cork underlay to allow the sleeper/tie bar to move back & forth freely. Lastly the two missing outer check rails need to be produced and soldered in place. Note that to function correctly these checkrails must begin, before a set of wheels reaches the Frog !!!!!
For a beginner it is worth using a Peco point as a guide to copy, for your first ever handbuild point. This will help familiarise yourself with all the parts necessary and exactly where each part needs to be. Practice makes perfect !!!
Happy Modelling 😝
Thanks for the extensive and well described process - I never made any suggestion that this was a 'how to build all your turnouts' video - just a tutorial on how to build the British Finescale kits. I'd love to see some of your work in N and compare its fidelity to these kits, that provide a quick and easy way of getting the chair detail accurate for the average modeller who wants to go beyond Peco Code 55.
I've just ordered some 2mm finescale Finetrax point kits just to get me started in the gauge, having never made track. This video is very helpful to me as a beginner - thanks James. RME you come across a bit combative but I'd really like to see your techniques demonstrated - have you considered producing tutorial videos yourself? say, to put an Inglenook layout on a small baseboard with all handbuilt track as a starter project?