@J. Motts posted:Neal, are you going to scratch build the turnout in 3 rail or 2 rail. I've scratch built a few turnouts, I was taught by a gentlemen who had a fabulous HO scale layout in an out building in his backyard back in El Paso, his track work was impeccable, you could back a 100 car freight train through his yards and I never experienced or saw a derailment. He made me a couple of jigs and a template so you could line out your "frog" and then build your frog right on top of it. He used a sheet of Zink because the solder didn't stick to it. A few years later when I was in Sn3, Fast Tracks, up in Canada, came out with the jigs to do what I had been doing by hand and it was way faster, you were still scratch building the turnout but you just used their jigs. They made filing the points so much easier and aligning the frogs at lot faster and more accurate. Unfortunately, John moved away and I lost touch with him, I'm pretty sure he has passed away, this was back in the 80's and he was 84 at that time but I always that he was in his 60's. Good luck on getting you MMR, I hope you do.
Neal congratulations on your progress! We are striking a blow for 3-railers a little at a time. As I'm sure you are aware, several of the categories in the Achievement Program (AP) (a.k.a. Master Modeler Railroaders program) has absolutely NOTHING to do with number of rails: Official, Author, Volunteer, Scenery, Prototype Scenery, Structures. That is 6 of the 11.
Some 3-railers have told me there is "no way" they would qualify because their track has 3 rails. That is not true. I got into the AP because I like a challenge and I'm so glad I did because I've learned so many things. In fact, I was kind of concerned about having to scratch-build four cars. Now, I'm planning (not for the AP) what things, cars & structures, that I'm going to build next! LOL I just needed a little push.
