Code 40 custom turnout drive

[MegaBlackJoe]

Hello fellow modellers. This day has finally come - I am extremely happy. I have finished a project that took me a few years. I have built a code 40 turnout and designed a custom drive that can switch turnout smoothly.

Running trains that have been designed for code 55 is challenging, but possible. I am not saying every loco will run on this, but the one on the video does.

The main goal of the project was to design a low profile drive with smooth switching and the goal has been achieved - the drive only occupies 5 mm under the ballast prism. It's quite and accurate, it can hold the position of point rails.

You can see some of the milestones on this photo:

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I quickly dropped some ideas like laser cut fixture, then switched to 3d printing. I spent tons of money on 3d printing services - back in the day affordable 3d printers haven't yet been available to the public. I had to print 10 parts just to understand the tolerances. I dropped the idea of 3d printed rail holders as you can't use your existing rolling stock on them. I purchased a 3d printer and then another one. And finally - I was able to do this - a fully working code 40 Z scale turnout.

Let me know, if you would like to have one. I don't plan to produce them commercially, but if you have been looking for a drive for your handlaid turnout, I could make a couple of them for fellow Z scalers.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Very cool and the video shows smooth action! Any photo or videos of the parts in action under the rail?

[Sokramiketes]

This is great.  Love the concept and the positive action.  The only thing I dislike about tortoises is the lever action of a long wire.  This looks much smoother.

[Maletrain]

First, congratulations on completing an effective design and fabrication project for a mechanical item. A lot of us have good ideas, but very few of us actually manage to get to a completely finished project of this type.

I don't see any reason this same concept could not work for N scale standard gauge, with a little change to the tie and rail features on top of the main part.  There would be a lot more takers for N scale standard gauge than Z scale and N scale narrow gauge.

I am assuming the actuator is a standard servo. 

If you aren't interested in selling them commercially, have you considered giving your design to member @narrowminded, who is working on very detailed code 40 printed tie strips and turnouts?  Integrating those two projects seems like it could produce a real winning design for both N and Z scales.

[MegaBlackJoe]

Hi, everyone, thank you for your feedback

Very cool and the video shows smooth action! Any photo or videos of the parts in action under the rail?

I may want to post it later

This is great. Love the concept and the positive action.  The only thing I dislike about tortoises is the lever action of a long wire. This looks much smoother.

Yes, it's more smooth as it's a linear action. One of the drawbacks of rotary servos and tortoises is that they destroy the hole where the long wire is attached over time.

First, congratulations on completing an effective design and fabrication project for a mechanical item. A lot of us have good ideas, but very few of us actually manage to get to a completely finished project of this type.

I don't see any reason this same concept could not work for N scale standard gauge, with a little change to the tie and rail features on top of the main part. There would be a lot more takers for N scale standard gauge than Z scale and N scale narrow gauge.

I am assuming the actuator is a standard servo. 

If you aren't interested in selling them commercially, have you considered giving your design to member @narrowminded, who is working on very detailed code 40 printed tie strips and turnouts?  Integrating those two projects seems like it could produce a real winning design for both N and Z scales.

Yes, the actuator is a standart part not produced by me, I basically designed the housing for it with the necessary tolerances, driver with the necessary connection. I think it can be easily readjusted to N-scale.

But I don't think anyone would be interested. I know N scale community is bigger than Z scale and it seems to me that it's the second popular scale in the world, but browsing through forum topics I can see that the majority of people - like 97 percent are using the ready made track. Handlaid track seems to be not very popular. So my phrase - no commercial interest means that I don't think, there will be many people interested in this kind of device, because there are not many handlaid track fans out there.

So what can be done here for N scale fans - we can do a small croudfunding campaign for those who want to have this drive. Let's say 10 people wishing to have 10 drives each (the ready made part). In this case I can make an N scale version according to your specifications with options. The price will depend on the options:

- full turnout, just the drive itslef
- 3d printed ties with custom disntancing and height to match the prototype and make sure that the drive will be working for the types of ties you select or custom CNC machined PCB ties like on my video (no more nasty metal debree on a ready made turnout) 
- driver, no driver if you already have your own one
- rails cut to sizes (including correct angles of point rails and frog) using precision rail cutter (no more messing with filing), no rails etc.

Once funded, I can share the design.

Sorry, but I can't share the design for free, because I have spent a lot of time designing this, understanding the tolerances, choosing the right types of resin to make the parts non brittle and stable so that the part doesn't get bent as we can see for many other prints over here, etc. I just hope that I can get at least part of my expenses covered on these experiments.