# Swapping LGB Turnouts with Aristo-Craft Turnouts



## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

I am planning on replacing some LGB brass turnouts with Aristo-Craft stainless steel turnouts. Regardless of the markings I have always considered the Aristo-Craft turnouts to be R3 (8' diameter) and interchangeable with LGB 16000 series R3 turnouts. I also have considered LGB and Aristo-Craft 8' diameter curve tracks to be interchangeable.

My current plans call for replacing some of the LGB brass track and turnouts with Aristo-Craft stainless steel track and turnouts and I did not anticipate any complications - just remove one and replace it with the other.

When I fed the information into RR Track to determine how much straight track I would need to buy I was surprised to find that according to RR-Track the curvature of the Aristo-Craft 10' diameter Wide Radius Switch Track does not match the curvature of the LGB R3 turnouts. Normally this would not be a particular problem but in this case I have a "figure 8" double reverse loop in the middle of a double main track so any change can create multiple complications.

Can anyone tell me specifically if they have or have not been able to interchange LGB and Aristo-Craft turnouts and if they did if they had to re-curve any of the connecting tracks? I do have a track bender so if I need to re-curve track I can do it but I am hoping for a drop in solution.

Thanks,

Jerry


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

RR-Track is right, 10' diameter on the Aristo. If you want to use them in place of 8' (nominal) LGB turnouts, you have some bending and maybe some cutting to do. 

Recurving is a bad idea, the curve is constant through the turnout, you cannot recurve the closure rails, also you cannot change the frog. Recurving the last 3 inches from the frog cannot make much difference except to cause problems in my opinion. 

Drop in will not happen if you consider "drop in" to match the existing curves. 

If it's just a few turnouts, maybe you can take them apart and nickel plate them. Or sell them and get the nickel plated LGB ones. Or maybe buy the equivalent from Train-Li. 

Regards, Greg


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Hi Greg,

I was not clear in that I did not mean that I was considering re-curving the turnouts - just re-curving the track leading from the figure 8 into the curves of the turnouts. I may be mistaken but I think the curve of the Aristo turnout is closer to that of an 8' curve than a 10' curve. 










I am mainly thinking about making the two mainlines all stainless. The two crossovers will not be a problem as they will easily substitute with the LGB turnouts. I already replaced the mainline curves with Aristo 8' and 10' stainless curves. The Aristo turnouts did not appear to me to match the Aristo 10' curves.

I had purchased the turnouts with the intention of using them on the 10' outer mainline. It was after I got the turnouts and looked at them that it appeared to me that they were more of an 8' curve than a 10' curve. Perhaps I need to look again. I will be quite happy if I am mistaken.

Jerry


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

The AristoCraft turn-outs are 10' diameter. The reason that you think that they look like/mate better with 8' diameter curves is because the diverging rail only covers 19.5 degrees of the curve whereas their sectional 10' diameter curved track carries 30 degrees for a sectional piece. The LGB track covers 22.5 degrees of arc per section as does the LGB 1600 turnout. In the case of the LGB track, it is a true drop in section for the 8' diameter curve.

If you want to use the AristoCraft turnouts with the AristoCraft curved section, you need to cut a curve that is 10.5 degrees of arc to fill in what the turnout left out.

If your plan is for track power, recognize that you have four reverse loops. I've discussed how to get around this either using a dpdt switch or automating it in a past post.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

yes what toddalin said i was just looking at both the aristo webinfo and the old lgb web info it is just what toddalin says


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By toddalin on 26 Jan 2011 06:05 PM 
The AristoCraft turn-outs are 10' diameter. The reason that you think that they look like/mate better with 8' diameter curves is because the diverging rail only covers 19.5 degrees of the curve whereas their sectional 10' diameter curved track carries 30 degrees for a sectional piece. The LGB track covers 22.5 degrees of arc per section as does the LGB 1600 turnout. In the case of the LGB track, it is a true drop in section for the 8' diameter curve.

If you want to use the AristoCraft turnouts with the AristoCraft curved section, you need to cut a curve that is 10.5 degrees of arc to fill in what the turnout left out.

If your plan is for track power, recognize that you have four reverse loops. I've discussed how to get around this either using a dpdt switch or automating it in a past post.


OK. That makes a lot of sense. I could not get RR-Track to match up with either 8' or 10' diameter Aristo curves and it did not show the actual degrees of the Aristo turnout (I knew the LGB was 22.5 degrees) but when I guessed the Aristo to be 1/2 of a 10' curve section that did not work either.

In effect what I will need will be some 3 degree sections to bring the Aristo turnouts to 22.5 degrees and thus match the existing figure 8.

I've used figure 8's for years in multiple gauges (they are my preferred method for double reverse loops in a minimum of space). There are fully insulated rails at every turnout leading into the figure 8 with DPDT switches to easily assure polarity with the mains.



















Thanks for the information. Now I better understand what I need to do.

Jerry


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

I believe the Train-Li R3 is the same as the LGB R3 except for the rail clamp/joiner. 

Train-li uses a shorter clamp/joiner, but Train-Li has clamps available with stainless screws that install from the top, not the sides, making them more accessable at switches/turnouts. 

The Train-li has a metal frog, but is only available in brass or nnickel plated.


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the information about the Train-Li turnouts. I may try them sometime in the future as I like to see how different products compare.

My main outside layout has Aristo stainless track and LGB nickel plated turnouts so that would be a good place to try the Train-Li turnouts when I next expand it.

Jerry


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