14: All rails are soldered in place. I like to fill the flange-
ways in my frogs with solder. It looks better and it also
prevents the semi-scale wheels under many of my cars
from dropping into the frog point flangeway. On a stan-
dard turnout, I make the frog assembly in a jig and fill
the frog flangeways with solder before removing it. With
custom turnouts I push wood ties under the frog to pre-
vent solder from “leaking” out the bottom, heat up the
frog with my soldering iron, and add solder until it looks
about full.
Once cool, I use a 2” piece of a hacksaw blade to “mill”
the excess solder out of the flangeway, then touch it
up with a couple of jeweler’s files. Testing with a wheel
set and the flangeway end of a NMRA track gauge
is very important after this step – it’s pretty easy to
leave excess solder in the flangeway which can lead to
wheels riding up and derailments.
Another problem is not removing enough solder from
the floor of the flangeway resulting in RP-25 flanges
bumping against it as they roll through. Done correctly,
when the wheel encounters the gap between the clo-
sure rails and frog point, the rim of the flange is sup-
ported by the floor of the flangeway and there are no
bumps as the wheel passes through.
WARNING: If you are using the older IHC or Rivarossi
“pizza-cutter” flanges, don’t fill the flangeways of your
frogs or they won’t work with your oversize flanges.
15: Once the turnout is ready, I remove the paper
template and bore a hole under the throwbar for the
switch machine’s actuator wire. I use a ½” Forstner
bit to make the hole. Clamping or holding a piece
of scrap wood under the hole helps prevent ragged
edges and splinters down there. Splinters are no fun,
but you probably already knew that.
