Let me add a few comments about the Shinohara turnouts. First of
all, they are the closest thing we will probably ever have to ready-
to-run turnouts in S-scale, and generally their construction and
operation is very good.
The suggestion about moving the guardrails closer to the stock rails
is a good one, and is easy to do. I simply carve off the plastic
spikes on the guardrail with an Xacto chisel blade, and epoxy or ACC
the guardrail back against the base of the stock rail. Then I drill
a couple of holes in the ties to drive in spikes to hold the
guardrail in place permanently. This solves most of the problems
around the frog.
Unfortunately, some of the #8 turnouts also have a tight gauge
problem around the point area. On some of the #8 turnouts, this
gauge problem around the points is so bad, that I cut off all of the
plastic ties in the point area, and glue wood ties on the roadbed to
fill this gap, before I install the turnout. Then you can spike the
stock rails near the points to the wood ties, solving most of the
gauge problem here.
One final observation about the #8 turnouts in the point area.
Recently, after ballast was glued down in the area, two of my #8
turnouts became so out-of-gauge in the point area, that I had to
remove a portion of the stock rail, and glue it back down using
pliobond, followed with spikes. I left an expansion gap in the stock
rail between the points and the frog, assuming that the gauge problem
arose when the benchwork shrunk during the winter (dry conditions),
and the ballast held the Shinohara turnout so firmly that the
rails "escaped" in the weakest location of attachment -- near the
points where there are no plastic spikes holding the track in gauge
on both sides of the rail.
In the future, I believe I will cut an expansion gap in both stock
rails, between the point area and the frog area, to give the stock
rails somewhere to creep. This expansion gap may actually solve most
of the gauge problems around the point area, making it unnecessary to
go with the wood ties, as described above.
The #6 turnouts do not seem to have the gauge problems around the
points.
Although the above makes it sound like the Shinohara turnouts are
more trouble than they are worth, this is not the case. Any turnout
will require some adjustment and periodic maintenance in order to
work properly. The Shinohara turnouts are easy to install and
generally work well right out of the box.
Dan Vandermause
Ellicott City, MD
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