The Home Machinist!

Those of you that have helped with track work knew how difficult and how heavy moving turnouts can be. Also some of 'us' are getting up there in years. So with that in mind and a prototype to trigger the design urge, we built a new tool for the track gang's use at TM.

The inspiration and the tool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EUrBHR ... 8I1TeKtuO0

Looks like a great solution to moving switches, sorta analogous to that German video were they are putting down concrete ties and welded rail.

I do not have hundreds of switches to move, so when I fabricate one, I use my Toro Dingo TX427WT with either of two attachments, I fabricated for it, to move switches.

In the first two photos it’s a scraper, the second set a 2” pipe made into a “Snorkel” type of lifter.

Actually that “Snorkel” works better for positioning a switch.

Our total switch installation, not finished yet, will be under twenty.

Nicely done. It sure saves wear and tear on the switch and the 'crew'! Some of our switches that are being replaced / installed are several miles from the main area so doing things by train adds to the 'fun' of working oops volunteering here! Russ

Nicely done Russ, the only thing i can see that would make that better is to add one more cable system to bring the switch back and forth for you...

Actually that is on the ver 1.1 list! We have some minor tweaks regarding (are you ready for this?) making sure that the stabilizer pads FIT through the tunnels! There needs to be stops on the end of the rails (duh!). We think we might stiffen the truck springs just a little, etc. It's a fun project and should help the backs of our senior track crew. Thanks for stopping by. Russ

awesome
I wish i was closer, this would be a fun project

This week is the Narrow Gauge meet and we have a bunch of steamers from Wa. Check the pix on the website, you might recognize a few of them. Should be fun. So far we have had wind, rain, snow, and some sunshine. It is always 'interesting' this time of year. Thanks for your comments. Russ

Tool in action and there is a bonus feature called, 'the learning curve'! Russ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCpnk3cw54U