Home page HO Handmade track
Welcome to my site, custom made HO Handmade Track. I was recently forced to move into a rental home that we will not be staying in, meaning I will not have ability to start a new railroad. Therefore I have had a lot of free time and have made a supply of HO scale handmade #8, #6, and #4.5 turnouts (switches) in several rail gauges, code 100, code 83, code 70, and code 55, all in Micro Engineering nickle-silver rail. I have made all of these turnouts with the care of building them for my own railroad in the future.
These turnouts are all made with the “Fast Tracks“ jig assembly method. There is simply no better operating turnout out there. I had 14 of these turnouts operating in an area that was nearly impossible to access between two decks. The only derailment I ever had was when I forgot to throw the switch.
You can certainly go to “Fast Tracks” site and buy everything you need to make your own turnouts, but you will have the initial expense of all the tools and jigs you would need to purchase to do the job, and, you would need the time to build the assemblies, which, honestly, takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a single turnout. I have now built over 100 of these turnouts. This experience creates much better looking and operating switches than when I began using this system.
All Fast Tracks items are based on PC board ties connecting the adjacent rails in a skeleton form. I have completed these turnouts using “Fast Tracks Quick Sticks” real plywood crosstie assemblies that I have pre-painted to look like railroad tie brown wooden ties, and are the thickness of most comercially available flex tracks so that you can readily mix and match. The turnouts are already electrically “gapped” for easy power connection in either DC or DCC. There is a hole pre-drilled into the throwbar of each turnout. The only thing you would need are either hand throw mechanisms, or electrical switch motors, of which I prefere “Cobalt” switch motors by DCC Concepts, or “Tortoise” switch machines. Also, “Frog Juicers” by Tam Valley Depot and available at Fast Tracks is a great way to automatically change frog polarity without using up switch motor contact points.
Custom Items
I currently have limited supplies to make #8 and #6 single and double crossovers. Also, I do have the tools for making 60 degree crossings, #4 turnouts, #10 36 inch/ 30 inch curved turnout, #10 30 inch/ 27 inch curved turnout, and #8 Gantlet track (see “Fast Tracks” site if you are unfamiliar with Gantlets). Ask me about building other Fast Tracks items for you. Great if you do not have the time or experience to build an item yourself. Time estimate on special items, or items for which I have to order more supplies might be 4 to 8 weeks. Contact me if you have some custom items you would like built. I would also be willing to try to build in code 100 and code 70 almost any item listed here as code 83. Code 55 might be available in larger turnout sizes, but I would have to evaluate my ability to complete a quality product for you since I have not tried using the smaller gauge in larger jigs.
Do You have other jigs and tools from “Fast Tracks”? I can make the track for you to save you time. See custom category.
Resale Items
I also have a couple of used jigs and tools for sale. Try your hand at constructing #6 or #8 switches or crossovers yourself at a much lower initial cost. Check out other items I have available listed here also. See resale category.
