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Hey all,
About 2 months ago now I was challenged/ asked to make a double crossover.
While I thought this project would be difficult I had no idea how long it would
take me. In total I have between 20-40 hours of time invested in the double
crossover. Anyway here’s a little rundown on how I made this one of a kind
switch.
As you might have guessed I was a little worried about this modification since I
had to use 4 switches for this project. Needless to say I spent about a week
just planning where I was going to cut. When I finally did start cutting the
track I did as I always do, I removed the rails. This is really the not so big
secret to making strong glue joints.
As you can see there were quite a few parts that went into making this switch.
The underside—note the use of actual Lego for the reinforcement. I also used a
CA+ glue called zap-a-gap for all glue joints. This glue is amazingly strong and
I don’t have to wear a respirator to use it. You might have also noticed the
colored telephone wire. The wire provides a power jumper from one side of the
crossing to the other as well as power to the center sections. In this picture
you can also see that I “flipped” 2 of the switch controls to the outside of the
rails. They work identically as the unmodified ones do, they just don’t have the
position locking mechanism.
The finished product: I got to test it the other day running both my 8-wide
f-7 and a motor over the switch for about 20 minutes running back and forth in a
x pattern. The only train car I found that didn’t like the switch was the red
hopper from the 4512 Cargo Train set. This was due to the stretched wheelbase.
No biggie I’ll make it an 8-wide =)
I would certainly like to hear your comments, suggestions and opinions on this
so feel free to speak your peace.
Thanks,
ondrew
custom lego track products ->
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=142467
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: A double crossover
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| (...) [snip] (...) Looks great Ondrew! I'd be interested to know though, the unmodified switch controls actaully look like they stick out a long way toward the other track, might there be more of a problem than usual with long wheelbase cars hitting (...) (19 years ago, 22-Nov-05, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.parts.custom, FTX)
| | | Re: A double crossover
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| In lugnet.announce, Ondrew Hartigan wrote: (snip) I saw some sneak preview pics and was floored then. Wow. Now, for your next trick, let's see you get the points on this one to interlock (if one turnout is thrown to take the crossover, the (...) (19 years ago, 22-Nov-05, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.parts.custom, FTX)
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