Which Fastracks fixture

[John]

I'm going to get a fast trax fixture .. I only want to spend money on one ..   

 #7,#8, or #10

and why?

[wazzou]

I'm going to get a fast trax fixture .. I only want to spend money on one ..   

 #7,#8, or #10

and why?

I’m going with #7 because I’m not going to have a lot of room, yet they still don’t look too tight.
You’ve got much more room, so going with an 8 or 10 wouldn’t be a bad choice.
I don’t know if if you’re modeling mainline or branch line but see what your prototype used and then see what you can live with.
Print the paper templates from their website and lay a few out in order to make an informed decision.

[garethashenden]

I'd pick the one you'd use the most. Once you get used to it you'll probably be able to make other sizes with just a template.

[John]

I'd pick the one you'd use the most. Once you get used to it you'll probably be able to make other sizes with just a template.

Many of the industry spurs are Atlas #5, #7 for yards and mainline including crossovers, #10 for high speed mainline crossovers

I'm leaning toward the #8 as I also want to do some freemo work

[Angus Shops]

I chose the #7 - the vast majority of my switches are the #7 (75 or so of them) with #9 (8 of them) used only for mainline/passing sidings locations and #6 (13) for some yard and industry switching where space was tight. In my experience the #7’s look vastly longer than the #6’s, and the #9’s looking only modestly longer than the #7’s. There seems to be a big difference between the length of the #7’s over the #6’s, but less so between the #7’ and the #9’s, at least visually. I’m really satisfied with the look - the #7’s look long enough to be ‘railroady’ but don’t take up as much space as #8’s or #9’s. I bought the #7 jig and built the rest over paper templates.

[John]

Thanks .. thats the kind of info I was hoping to get

[bbussey]

I did the reverse, got the #8 double crossover fixture, and the #8 point form and stock aid fixtures. I work from paper templates now, or draw my own, but use various aspects of the fixtures to shorten build time regardless of the turnout number.

[mike_lawyer]

I am using Fast Track #7s on the mainline and #6s in the yard and industries.  The #6 is much shorter than the #7, so it will work better with my space constraints.

You can print out full size templates of the switches.  See if you have enough space for #7s.  If not, go with #6s.

[robert3985]

Many of the industry spurs are Atlas #5, #7 for yards and mainline including crossovers, #10 for high speed mainline crossovers

I'm leaning toward the #8 as I also want to do some freemo work

Part of the problem here is properly visualizing the angle, length and effective diverging radius using Atlas 55 turnouts as references.  ALL of the straight Atlas turnouts are proportioned so that the closure rails from the point of the frog to the point rail heels are far too short, making their #5 closer to a #4 and a properly proportioned #5...which greatly decreases the effective diverging radius and makes cars & engines that will run okay through an actual #5 not be able to run through the Atlas #5.  Functionally, the Atlas #7 works okay, but is only a fraction of an inch longer than an ME #6 because of the much too short closure rails.  Atlas #10's also suffer from this and are much shorter than a "real" #10.

Photo (1) - I've published this before, but it gives a very graphic look at the relative sizes of several different sized turnouts when compared against each other...notice how much longer a properly proportioned #7 is than a #6:


Photo (2) - Here's a direct comparison between an Atlas55 #7 and a properly proportioned Micro Engineering #6...notice they're very close to the same length, which is wrong:


The effective diverging radius of a proper #6 turnout is 23"...which is not small, and will cosmetically and functionally accommodate ANY length car, or size of engine without a problem.  However, it's "default" length is 6.26"...but can be made as short as 4.3".  If you are judging the size of a #7 by the Atlas55 #7, remember that it is virtually identical to a properly proportioned #7...and that a "real" #7 will be considerably longer...its "default" length being 7.4"...minimum  length can be as short as 5.44".  By the same token, a "real" #8 will be MUCH longer than a #6 with an effective diverging radius of 36", a "default" length of 8"...and can be made as short as 5.93".

A #10 spec's are: Effective diverging radius of 64"...VERY large..."default" length of 9.15" and can made as short as 6.8"

I don't know how large your layout will be, nor what your minimum mainline radius is, nor what your Light Duty trackage's minimum radius is, but, from a purely functional standpoint, a #6 will accommodate any engines or cars that you have, and look okay doing it.  Additionally, if you wanted to shorten them, #6's will work okay for industrial trackage too as well as yard trackage, giving your more yard tracks in a given length than larger turnouts.

On the other hand, if you want larger turnouts with an even larger effective diverging radius that will work well for mainline trackage, but maybe not so well for yards and industrial trackage, a #8 would be about right.

Most of my hand-made turnouts are #8's which take the place of prototype #9's and #10's...which the vast majority of UP turnouts are in Ogden, Weber and Echo Canyons and in Evanston during my time period (1947 thru 1956) which had the largest steam locomotives in the world plying those very tracks as well as huge turbines at the same time...as well as many different passenger trains during the day and night.

However, my layout is fairly large (15' X 30') with a 24" minimum mainline radius...and in many places a much larger radius.  My maximum train length is one Big Boy, 30 40' reefers and a caboose...which makes my center sidings a minimum of 9' 7 1/2" long, so instead of using prototypical #10's to lead into the #6.5 "Crotch Frog" turnout leading to the center siding, I use #8's with a #4 Wye.  Big Boys, E-units, Challengers, TTT's and Standard Turbines look great navigating the slightly smaller turnouts...and this gives me a longer center siding in less space than if I used #10's and a #6.5 Wye.

Photo (3) - Emory Center Siding on a curve with a #6 on the left, a #4 Wye and a #8 on the right...all built on a paper template on my drawing table:
[/url]

BUT, just for the helluvit, I've got some #12's in the west end of my Echo yard...just because I wanted to.

If I were buying a turnout fixture from Fast Tracks, I'd go with a #8 double crossover.  If my layout were smaller, I'd probably go with a #6 double crossover. 

I hope some of these musings and comparos will assist you in spending your money most effectively!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore


 

[

[ridinshotgun]

Part of the problem here is properly visualizing the angle, length and effective diverging radius using Atlas 55 turnouts as references.  ALL of the straight Atlas turnouts are proportioned so that the closure rails from the point of the frog to the point rail heels are far too short, making their #5 closer to a #4 and a properly proportioned #5...which greatly decreases the effective diverging radius and makes cars & engines that will run okay through an actual #5 not be able to run through the Atlas #5.  Functionally, the Atlas #7 works okay, but is only a fraction of an inch longer than an ME #6 because of the much too short closure rails.  Atlas #10's also suffer from this and are much shorter than a "real" #10.

Photo (1) - I've published this before, but it gives a very graphic look at the relative sizes of several different sized turnouts when compared against each other...notice how much longer a properly proportioned #7 is than a #6:


Photo (2) - Here's a direct comparison between an Atlas55 #7 and a properly proportioned Micro Engineering #6...notice they're very close to the same length, which is wrong:


The effective diverging radius of a proper #6 turnout is 23"...which is not small, and will cosmetically and functionally accommodate ANY length car, or size of engine without a problem.  However, it's "default" length is 6.26"...but can be made as short as 4.3".  If you are judging the size of a #7 by the Atlas55 #7, remember that it is virtually identical to a properly proportioned #7...and that a "real" #7 will be considerably longer...its "default" length being 7.4"...minimum  length can be as short as 5.44".  By the same token, a "real" #8 will be MUCH longer than a #6 with an effective diverging radius of 36", a "default" length of 8"...and can be made as short as 5.93".

A #10 spec's are: Effective diverging radius of 64"...VERY large..."default" length of 9.15" and can made as short as 6.8"

I don't know how large your layout will be, nor what your minimum mainline radius is, nor what your Light Duty trackage's minimum radius is, but, from a purely functional standpoint, a #6 will accommodate any engines or cars that you have, and look okay doing it.  Additionally, if you wanted to shorten them, #6's will work okay for industrial trackage too as well as yard trackage, giving your more yard tracks in a given length than larger turnouts.

On the other hand, if you want larger turnouts with an even larger effective diverging radius that will work well for mainline trackage, but maybe not so well for yards and industrial trackage, a #8 would be about right.

Most of my hand-made turnouts are #8's which take the place of prototype #9's and #10's...which the vast majority of UP turnouts are in Ogden, Weber and Echo Canyons and in Evanston during my time period (1947 thru 1956) which had the largest steam locomotives in the world plying those very tracks as well as huge turbines at the same time...as well as many different passenger trains during the day and night.

However, my layout is fairly large (15' X 30') with a 24" minimum mainline radius...and in many places a much larger radius.  My maximum train length is one Big Boy, 30 40' reefers and a caboose...which makes my center sidings a minimum of 9' 7 1/2" long, so instead of using prototypical #10's to lead into the #6.5 "Crotch Frog" turnout leading to the center siding, I use #8's with a #4 Wye.  Big Boys, E-units, Challengers, TTT's and Standard Turbines look great navigating the slightly smaller turnouts...and this gives me a longer center siding in less space than if I used #10's and a #6.5 Wye.

Photo (3) - Emory Center Siding on a curve with a #6 on the left, a #4 Wye and a #8 on the right...all built on a paper template on my drawing table:
[/url]

BUT, just for the helluvit, I've got some #12's in the west end of my Echo yard...just because I wanted to.

If I were buying a turnout fixture from Fast Tracks, I'd go with a #8 double crossover.  If my layout were smaller, I'd probably go with a #6 double crossover. 

I hope some of these musings and comparos will assist you in spending your money most effectively!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[

Thanks for the visuals and the explanations.  I was waffling between #6 or #8 crossover fixture and you pretty much sealed it for the #8 jig.

[nickelplate759]

What's the reason for choosing the #8 crossover vs. the regular #8 fixture?   Is it just in case you want to make a #8 crossover, or is there another use I'm not seeing?

Not trying to be snarky.  I'm thinking about getting a fixture too to start on a future layout, and trying to optimize my costs...

[TrainCat2]

Pardon my ignorance during my catching up period, why a crossover fixture instead of a turnout fixture? It appears that crossovers could be built with the std turnout fixture. I could see the appeal if you bought two crossover fixture so you could do all of the alignment in the fixture.

[John]

Pardon my ignorance during my catching up period, why a crossover fixture instead of a turnout fixture? It appears that crossovers could be built with the std turnout fixture. I could see the appeal if you bought two crossover fixture so you could do all of the alignment in the fixture.

It allows you to build the crossing as well

[dem34]

Its $190
Instead of $140 + $110

[TrainCat2]

Its $190
Instead of $140 + $110

Very true. I was going for #7’s on the main and #5’s everywhere else so without a #7 crossover, I had to ask.