Anyways... I turned out several #6 switches and began construction of the other 6 curved #8 switches I'll need to build Adena yard. If I hadn't been watching Netflix I'm sure my output might have been higher but it was a good way to pass the time.
After building a right hand curved #8 30"/24" radius switch earlier in the summer I felt pretty good about "free hand" building turnouts with only the Fast Tracks paper templates. I finished my first left handed version of the aforementioned switch type while watching the finale of that BBC show. Probably not a good idea as my split focus did not produce the results I had back in that Wordless Wednesday #78 post.
I ended up making a multitude of mistakes. The diverging route wing rail was a bit tight to the frog point rail. The frog points were too short and stubby allowing some wheel drop into the frog on my test wheel set. And to top it all off it wasn't even a #8 30/24 radius switch I built. I accidentally used the #8 40/30 paper template I thought I set aside. No wonder it didn't quite fit into the yard ladder I had laid out on paper. The 40/30 radius switch was for the yard throat and I wanted to save it for last as I figured my switch building skills would be sharper by then. Whoops.
Well I did get building that switch out of the way, but unfortunately I had to go back and fix all it's problems. Better to make sure its right now then have to fix it when its installed on the layout.
If there's any moral to this blog post, I guess it would be don't build switches while watching compelling TV shows!
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| Desoldering the far too short frog points. |
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