Kankool trackwork – Part III …

Hi all,

Following on from my previous post on the tiebar installation, I have been carrying out testing of the new tiebars and turnouts in situ.

As outlined in a previous post, the wire-in-tube (WIT) hardware were mounted on timber bases directly underneath the spline at each turnout location.

The wire from the turnout back to the lever frame was temporarily connected to the frame using brass screw ferrules from terminal blocks.

 

During initial testing, I found that length of the vertical drive shaft attached to the brass block had too much flex in it to work the turnout reliably.  Due to the thickness of the spline at around 25mm, the resultant drive shaft length was around 30mm.  The image below shows the vertical drive shaft and brass block. (Note – image shows the revised drive shaft length)

 

It was also found that the length of tube attached to the underside of the tiebar was too long.  So this was reduced to around 3mm in length.

 

To reduce the drive shaft length, I realised that a reduction in spline thickness would be necessary at each turnout location.

After carrying out some tests with different drive shaft lengths, I found that a length of around 15 to 17mm operated much more reliably.  I decided to reduce the spline thickness to 10mm.  This was removed quite easily with my multi tool and saw blade.  At one of the other locations, I had to use a router.

 

Once the spline was cut away at each location, the previously made timber mounts for the WIT hardware were re-attached to the spline by gluing in place.

 

I am quite happy with the result, so the next stage will be to paint the turnouts and fix in place.

I have made a short video showing the turnout operating from the lever frame.

 

Cheers.