Fastrack 45 degree cross over

Here's a few:

Hi,

attached are a few using a 45-degree crossover.

the first one is a variation for a Christmas tree layout, and the second one is a simplification of an old MTH display layout.

Enjoy you trains!

A 4-way crossover between 2 lines using 060 or O72 switches.

Here is a cross over I'm working on wiring up and moving into place on my layout. 

Mikewalter,  This is what I wanted to forever do with fastrack. Please give the track peices used to make this double crossover and switch radious .Not as close of track spacing as ross, but is good enough for fastrack. I want to make this for my layout exspantion when I get a bigger space. 

I did some custom cutting to get the center rail spacing down to 8.25". Then, I bring it back to 6" by staggering the curves at the nearest turn for the double main. FasTrack is set naturally for 6" center rail spacing.

It requires cutting the 45° cross to look like the half-roadbed fitters. It also requires an custom made for length straight with the roadbed also notched.

When it's assembled with factory pieces, it's about a 10.5" center rail spacing.

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Mikewalter,  This is what I wanted to forever do with fastrack. Please give the track peices used to make this double crossover and switch radious .Not as close of track spacing as ross, but is good enough for fastrack. I want to make this for my layout exspantion when I get a bigger space. 

Hi, I use SCARM for my planning, but as it turns out the cross over didn't quite match for some reason.  Still have yet to really look into it.  So here is what I have in the picture.

4 - O72 switch

1 - 45 Cross over

8 - 1 3/8" hRB (Comes with switches)

4 - 1 3/4"

2 - 4 1/5"

Connect all 8 of the 1 3/8" hRB to ends of switches where you would expect, I think they come pre-installed on new switches.

Connect (1) 4 1/2" and (2) 1 3/4" to the straight sections on each side**.

That should do it.  You can get closer if you feel like cutting the 45 section to match up where the half roadbeds go.  One more thing, forgot to mention before I edited this post.  I removed the cross section under the middle of the 45 so that power didn't cross between the lines.  I chose not to power the little X in the middle, as I expect my engines will use momentum or even have enough spacing to pass over it.  Some have suggested soldering a wire from the middle screw where the little X is connected to one of the legs.  If you look at the under side of the X you will know what I mean.  If not, just ask.  This way as well you don't have to remove the jumper of the 1 3/8" hRB pieces either.  I am still wiring mine up, just got it all connected last night.  Now to wire the controls.

**My original plan with SCARM had (1) 5", (1) 1 3/8", and (1) 1 3/4" where the above straight section was and it did not fit correctly.

I hope that helps.

-Mike

Gentlemen,

MM is correct and I used the Rockwell X2 portable table saw to cut absolutely perfect custom close out FT pieces to engineer the double FT Crossover and it worked perfectly.

PCRR/Dave

This is one h*** of a cool post!  Lot's of ideas!

Could mm or some one post pics of the crossover they did. Still trying to get a picture in my mind of the cut down 45 piece.

Also in tmcc and legacy with full track power is their a need to special wire the fastrack? 

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Could mm or some one post pics of the crossover they did. Still trying to get a picture in my mind of the cut down 45 piece.

Also in tmcc and legacy with full track power is their a need to special wire the fastrack? 

I'll put a photo up later. it's a pain to remove the entire assembly. But, I think you can see the roadbed cuts to make the cross-over more narrow. They didn't come out as cleanly as I would have liked, so they are visible on a couple of joints.

What you are doing is making the ends of the 45 roadbed look like the half-roadbed 1 3/8" pieces, so that they fit into the switch end. Cutting off the roadbed 1 3/8". I didn't want to modify the switches, but didn't mind doctoring the crossover.

What you won't see is the electrical modification to the 45 to isolate the lines.

There is a metal X under the center that connects all of the center rails. That is easily removed. Then, I chose to jumper, with soldered wires, the legs on the same side to maintain the inner and outer loop power isolation.

Thanks carl, btw if ones layout is all tmcc/legacy command does one need to remove the metal x under the crossover? 

I want to make sure I fully understand this before buying the nessesary pieces thanks.

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Thanks carl, btw if ones layout is all tmcc/legacy command does one need to remove the metal x under the crossover? 

I want to make sure I fully understand this before buying the nessesary pieces thanks.

No. it can be all one power district. It makes it easier. I had the desire to reduce the width for space reasons. One can really use all of the factory parts and adjust the track near concentric curves as needed. Then the package is around 10.5" centers or 13" wide roadbed edge to edge. I wanted to get it to a 6" center rail spacing, but there wasn't enough crossover to work with. Well, at least I didn't want to totally destroy it if it didn't work.

I am running Legacy, but I have a 180PH for each line(ZW-C - 4 180PH). I left the option to kill power on a loop or run a conventional train.