# Aristocraft manual turnout fix



## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

After 15 + years outside (no complaints) the little spring in the manual control of my Aristocraft turnout disolved. After some research found replacement springs at more than I wanted to pay and needed an excuise to play with my new resistance soldering toy. I made ground throws that I liked, but the positive position of them didn't allow for the great feature that Aristo built into them, the off center spring action. It holds the points in position that the throw put it in, but allows a train coming from the 'wrong' dirction of the points to flip the track in that dirction so it will not derail. Simple fix for the track and just as easy a mod for the ground throws I made. Will also work with a slight mod of the Aristo supplied throw mechanism. Still havin' fun.


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## MGates (Mar 16, 2016)

Neat switch stands! I've had success in using Tenmille throws and making them "sprung" with some thin gauge wire twisted into a loop like a lowercase cursive "o." For the switch stands I imagine the same can be done in place of the throw bar, but I haven't tried that out yet as no customers have asked for it to be done so far since I've been making turnouts.

Cool home project though, it's always nice to restore/revive some older equipment to give some more life.


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike, sounds like a good idea, and making turnouts is an art for sure.


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike, I think this is what you meant. While holding the points in the set direction it will still allow a train coming from the other direction to move the points so it doesn't derail. I tried this with several sizes of SS spring wire, the one I had the best success with was .020. Note I removed the off center spring for this ground throw as the .020 wire wasn't strong enough to move the points with it in place. The off center spring can still be used with the modified stock Aristocraft manual control as it is a more positive movement. I also refined the switch stand.


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## MGates (Mar 16, 2016)

Nick, yep that's what I was hoping to illustrate with words! 

Pete at Sunset Valley RR has some images that illustrate how he connects his ground throws to the throw bar in a similar way:









Similar idea just a different shape of wire. This is a paperclip in this example so probably not meant to spring back since the paperclip gauge of wire may be a bit too rigid to allow that. The loop of wire as you have it should be a better shape than this for spring action.

Thanks for sharing your test.


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike, I guess we were all thinking along the same lines. Here is one made of .030 spring wire. It worked just fine and allowed a train from the wrong direction to move the points so as not to derail. I wanted something smaller, and the off center spring was no long necessary.


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