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....................--- Turnouts for Staging Yard ---
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The staging yard will be built first and won't be prototypical of real railroading. Still I'll probably build a couple industries to gain some knowledge in that direction also. The main purpose of the yard will be building and staging trains that will go onto the main part of the layout from the east or west. The layout will primarily be a point to point layout but there will be an option to also run continuously or to or from the staging yard in either direction. The other function of the staging yard is that there will be a programming track where I can program decoders and a couple parallel tracks in a loop where engines can be run in and/or tested.
Before starting with the roadbed and track I wanted to have all the turnouts made for the staging yard. I need 15 right hand, 11 left hand and five 3-way turnouts if I make the staging yard like above. I'd bought a #6 double cross-over fixture from FastTracks along with PointForm and StockAid tools to go along with the fixture. I build a couple #6 turnouts with the fixture as you can build them along with the cross-over using the fixture. I also built some curved turnouts using paper templates although they may not be used in the staging yard. More on building turnouts ( HERE ).
I needed a lot more turnouts so right before Thanksgiving I started making more #6 turnouts and also a #6 3-Way turnouts using a paper template.
I took my turnout building stuff to Denver for Thanksgiving with the son-in-laws and built 6 left-hand turnouts there. I built two #6's after returning and one more 3-way. The curved and other #6's shown above I had built previously. I use a Fast-Tracks fixture on the #6's and they go pretty quick now. Can't do them in an hour yet but under two hours and getting faster if I make up the guard rails, points, frog, and stock rails in batches. The point forming tools and stock aid tools really help also in both speed and quality of the turnout.

I'm making the curved turnouts and the 3-ways with double sided tape on paper templates and that is a little slower and for the 3-ways quite a bit slower but then when you finish one you have actually finished two.
After returning home I wasn't sure about building more 3-ways but went ahead and the one at the top took about half the time to get to where it need ties vs. the first one at the bottom, about 4 hours. It will take about an hour to cut and glue the ties to finish it. I still need to do that with a lot of the others but they will go faster. I finished the remainder of the #6 left hand turnouts before we went to Phoenix for Christmas.
I took my turnout building tools and supplies to Phoenix and started on the right hand turnouts and got seven of them done there.
Upon returning home I built the final two 3-Way turnouts. Still need 8 more right hand turnouts but I'm getting close to being done with turnouts for the time being.
I want to build a jig to hold a turnout in with a short section of track on the legs so I can run a loco with a car or two through it to make sure it works well before installing it on the layout.
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