signature switch company

I have two of his switches and they are extremely well made. They come with wires attached, at least mine did but I bought them second hand, however like any other turnout outside of 3 rail it is up to you to decide if and how you want to power the frog. 

I have three switches from them and all were delivered DCC ready. There were no wires attached, but I'm quite sure if a customer specified that need they would have been provided. These are custom built and Brad is easy to get along with.

Bob

The point rails are electrically connected to the stock rails.  The frog is typically fairly long on Signature Switches and they are electrically isolated so you probably will want to power the frog. 

You can add feeder wires for an extra $5 per switch, quite a bargain when you consider the heat sink problem of soldering next to a frog or a soldered pc tie.

Ed

Plus, Brad will use the wire color of your choice.

This is how my curved turnouts arrived.

This was the very first switch I got from Brad several years ago.  Almost no clickity clack.  Maybe his company should be called Silent Switch Co.

The following photo shows a convergence of several tracks.  What you do not see is the prep shot.  We had all these tracks coming together with fixed radii  but no turnouts in mind or on hand.

Brad had us lay the track exactly where we wanted it then he instructed us to roll out heavy brown wrapping paper and trace 10" of each rail end.  We then put in in a mailing tube & he then converted it to a cad drawing which he emailed to us.  I sent the file to FedEx.  They printed out a full size pattern which we set over the existing rail head.  Presto!  Perfect fit.

Brad will also do custom work.  Here he fully soldered up some "Snap Track" in four different radii so as to have absolutely consistent stiff curved track at a lift out.  The curved track sections were also supplied with wire drop colors as requested

Brad's custom fit switches made building a tight track plan possible.

This is in no way discounting the prototype high detail bolt perfect O Scale  Turnouts with ROW features.  Two different ways to have an excellent  layout.

Tom Tee,

Very nice switch work!! Thank you for the photos,plus you give me an idea for an interchange I been running through my mind for months,well closer to a year with no success. Can you elaborate on what looks like your interchange? I'm hoping to have an arrangement that shows true interchange perhaps even a "sharing" of trackage for a short run about 20ft.

Thanks so much for the photos.

Al Hummel

OK,

Upper tracks:  House is sitting on East/West thru tracks.  Tipple straddles track 3 & 4

Lower level: Two left tracks to passenger station, track 3 local passenger service, track 4 freight yard, track 5 to industrial area. Note 16 feet of piano hinge above level.  The entire 2' x 16'  upper level lifts up to service 5 storage tracks below.

Two left tracks outter loops, two inner tracks inner loops and yard feeds.

Hi line and lower branches converging

Old Pullman photo:

Tom Tee,

Thank you. What's your width & length of the layout? The length looks vast.

Al Hummel

Tom's photos visually demonstrate the advantage of using curved turnouts when space is at a premium.  Not only can you fit more railroad into a given space, the trains look and run better when the track alignments "flow".   I have more than a dozen curved turnouts on the railroad, many of which have the points located in easements entering fixed radius curves.   Buying custom built turnouts is a good way to get started, but for those that have the time (and perhaps on a budget) laying your own turnouts using ROW castings is a good way to go - the castings make it a piece of cake.  

Keystoned Ed posted:

   Buying custom built turnouts is a good way to get started, but for those that have the time (and perhaps on a budget) laying your own turnouts using ROW castings is a good way to go - the castings make it a piece of cake.  

Hi Ed, I've build most of my own turnouts including making the frogs & points, but bought a curved one from Brad when I need one. Since you have laid your own curved T/O's let me ask does a convention straight frog work with the curved assembly ?

Thanks

Bob

Isolate the frogs and use Tam Valley frog juicers and you will never have an electrical problem with your frogs. Guaranteed.

Tom that looks great, smooth and flowing....I'm jealous.  I'm going to have a few curved turnouts on my layout and I just pray they come out ok...

I understand prototype frogs used on curves are in fact "straight" for a short distance - but their curves are far larger than ours.  For curved turnouts on my railroad I used ROW frog castings whenever the angle of the diverging curves were close to an available ROW frog number.  In the photo below I used a #6 code 125  ROW frog.  (I use code 148 on the main, code 125 on secondary track)

For this mainline curved crossover on the climb to Horseshoe  curve I used a #10 ROW frog. 

 The third photo shows a yard ladder with two curved turnouts fanning off a nominal 68" radius curve.  In this case I used ROW points and guard rails, but filed my own frogs to suite.  Following concepts espoused by my late friend John Armstrong, I used curved ladders on my last two railroads - they can be invaluable in maximizing the length of body tracks in a yard.  The weeds in the ballast denote the location of buried round super-magnets used as Kadee uncouplers.  They work great and are very inexpensive.  For more info see my OGR uncoupling magnet thread back in the fall 2015 time frame.

The last photo shows a main line crossover on a 168" radius curve.  Since ROW doesn't offer frogs larger than #10,  I filed my own to fit.  With a little fiddling it probably took 30-40 minutes to make the frog.  In all cases I used ROW point and guard rail castings.  I particularly like how with a few strokes of a file the tits on the outside of ROW points snuggle into the  web of the stock rails holding  them in vertical alignment  - just like the prototype.  No ground away stock rails and weak plastic throw bars like on some commercial turnouts. 

Tip  - I use AtlasO code 148 flex track on the mainline (it's "whippiness" makes forming flowing easements a piece of cake) - but in areas of hand laid turnouts I use ROW code 148 for the stock rails.  While ROW rail height matches AtlasO code 148, the cross section of the web and base is finer allowing ROW point castings to snuggle in tight.  Early on I tried using AtlasO 148 rail (drawn from flex track ) for hand laid turnouts and found it require a lot of filing and fussing to get ROW points to close - lesson learned.. 

Let me mention I used Kappler Scale Lumber turnout ties and Micro Engineering spikes for building turnouts.  Needing to build over 100 turnouts, to save time I generally spiked the rail every 4th tie - most people don't notice..  An item on my to-do list is to install simulated ground throws in the yard and electro pneumatic switch motors castings on the main.   All turnouts are motor driven to keep operators' sleeves away from rolling stock and terrain (a lesson learned on a previous railroad).  I powered all frogs to eliminate stalls when switching with short wheelbase locomotives .  Operation is "walk around" using radio control NCE DCC cabs which have proven to be rock solid.   Mainline turnout toggles are mounted on five regional control panels along the aisles, while yard and industrial siding turnouts are activated by toggle switches under the fascia directly in line with the turnout points.

Before I met Brad Strong at Signature Switch I had some curved turnouts custom built using ROW frogs.  They work down to about 80" radius +/-.  But it is a fudge fit  The curves need to be flat thru the frog so the radii is not consistent.  Some early samples:

I have several of his turnouts, they are great!  Brad does a great job.  He made my yard turnouts and they are perfict.  Thanks again

Tom Tee posted:

Old Pullman photo:

Is that Chi-Town?

Some of these turnouts are longer than my layout. Beautiful work all.

Dick

Jim, Yes, I believe it is.  I was told it is a 10k sq ft former supermarket.  Tim @OP made a lot of their turnouts.

Yeah sure looks like Chi-Town.....massive is an understatement!

Prepping install of my tight staging yard entrance with special overlapping curved Signature Switches.

Brad's ladder assembly is rather different.  It has a half switch start and a half switch finish with as many or as few mid switches as you need.  They are all jig built so all mid sections match up with all end switches.

This approach permits placing the points right against the frog for max, diverging routes within a least amount of curvature.

Because of a unique configuration the exit end needed in this set up had a compound curvature change from 72" to 62" radius to miss benchwork support members.

Brad can fit anything.

Tom Tee posted:

Prepping install of my tight staging yard entrance with special overlapping curved Signature Switches.

Brad's ladder assembly is rather different.  It has a half switch start and a half switch finish with as many or as few mid switches as you need.  They are all jig built so all mid sections match up with all end switches.

This approach permits placing the points right against the frog for max, diverging routes within a least amount of curvature.

Because of a unique configuration the exit end needed in this set up had a compound curvature change from 72" to 62" radius to miss benchwork support members.

Brad can fit anything.

 

 

Pretty gosh darned ingenious.  Well done.

That's such a beautiful set of switches it isn't even funny.....a masterpiece with out question.