I bought one of the Fast-Track jigs and frog jig for the # 5 turnout. I
figured 5 Shinohara turnouts would have paid for the jigs. I've built 8
turnouts in the jig now and will be building several more for a friend.
Yes, they are all # 5 but if you go the Shinohara route, they are all the
same too. The comparison between the two is like night and day. I run my
SHS f units, and switchers through them along with AM SD60's so the FT # 5
jig works just fine. I haven't tested my AM 4-8-4 on them yet but I haven't
even put it on the test track. I suspect it will work but it will be an
ugly sight. My jig holds code 100 rail from ME. As a lark I used it to
hold ME code 83, which it did loosely. I made wood track gauges to hold it
steady while I soldered to the PC ties. What the gauge does for me is hold
the rails in place for the frog point and the wing rails. I then take that
and use jointed point rails, as long as necessary. As another test, I made
the frog and then gauged the stock rails to make an On30 switch. Once the
frog is soldered to the PC ties, any gauge track can be put down. The jig
for the frog soldering can be made on a pine board for any frog number then
the outside stock rails soldered to PC board ties for any gauge. The FT jig
allowed me to build a smooth working turnout the first time. I was able to
use it like any RTR turnout only it was smooth and all my diesels worked
perfectly. Another thing about the FT turnouts, practice helps. A friend
of mine has made over 2 dozen in HO and has the time to assemble them to
around an hour and 15 minutes. The first time I re-gauged a turnout it took
me almost as much time to get it right as he took to build one from scratch.
Bottom line, custom turnouts cost money, RTR have issues no matter what
scale you are in and hand building a turnout really doesn't eat up that much
time. If you want truly fast RTR layout in S I'd suggest you go highrail
with SHS or AM track with flyer compatible wheels. I've modeled in HO, S
and O scale and all three take some time to have a truly dependable track on
a layout. Highrail avoids that time but then you live with the oversized
wheel treads and flanges.
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