Marklin Turnout mechanism - I messed up...!

Hi All

I've messed up my Electric turnouts by getting glue in while ballasting. I've managed to free the mechanisms, but in doing so realise that the thin wire and plastic connection have broken contact and so the points do not work. Does anyone have a picture of a working electric turnout with the cover removed please? Also any suggestions as to how to bond the white plastic and thin mental rod?

Many thanks in advance.

Simon

Hello Simon,

maybe this helps:

I flippend open the paper cover of the coil. The thin rod is probably glued or soldered to the flat slider in the coil. The other end of the slider is formed to an eye which is set over the white plastic knob which is the manual handle for the turn out. To take out the coil with the mechanismen you have to open the taps on the underside of the turn out.

here I tried to take a picture of the white handle from the side:

Simon wrote:

Hi All

I've messed up my Electric turnouts by getting glue in while ballasting. I've managed to free the mechanisms, but in doing so realise that the thin wire and plastic connection have broken contact and so the points do not work. Does anyone have a picture of a working electric turnout with the cover removed please? Also any suggestions as to how to bond the white plastic and thin mental rod?

Many thanks in advance.

Simon

Excellent reason for removing its side mechanism and putting an undertable Tortoise instead, according to this page:

www.zscale.org/articles/undertable.html

Dom

Simon, the white plastic has hole, and the rod goes though it. Theres no need to glue it.

Many many thanks for taking the pictures ULie!

Dominique - That looks interesting thanks.....may go down that route if `I fail to fix the problem. The turnouts look elegant without the mechanism!

Shamoo - thanks as well. However, with the rod going through the white plastic hole unglued and trying to change direction with the manual switch, the point doesnt change as the rod simply slides through the white 'eye'. Are you sure yours isnt fixed?

Many thanks agian - great community!

Simon

if you ever get glue inside again,, methal hydrate,, just soak the inside with it, leave for a few minutes,, then soak again, and start shaking it. the methal will disolve the glue slowly, and the centrifical force will get it out. done this hundreds of times, plus the methal cleans the inside of gunk too,, just make sure its completely evaporated before plugging back in. canada mike

Simon wrote:

Many many thanks for taking the pictures ULie!

Dominique - That looks interesting thanks.....may go down that route if `I fail to fix the problem. The turnouts look elegant without the mechanism!

Shamoo - thanks as well. However, with the rod going through the white plastic hole unglued and trying to change direction with the manual switch, the point doesnt change as the rod simply slides through the white 'eye'. Are you sure yours isnt fixed?

Many thanks agian - great community!

Simon

Simon, its natural for the rod to slide through the hole. If you open one, you will see how one works. It sounds to me, that there could be damage to the switch mechanism. Its pretty hard to fixed it once its bend out of shape. I would recheck the switch nothing its impeding the movement of the switch. Also, never oil a switch to make it work smoother. It will damage the switch.

Hello Simon,
Simon wrote:

with the rod going through the white plastic hole unglued and trying to change direction with the manual switch, the point doesnt change as the rod simply slides through the white 'eye'. Are you sure yours isnt fixed?

Which plastic part do you mean? On the side where the thin rod is connected with the tie (the left side in my picture) the rod goes through without being fixed. In the coil the thin rod is somehow connected with a metal bar, which has an eyeloop on the other end in which the white plastic knob is fixed (on the right side in my picture). On this side the white plastic knob is also the handle for operating the turn out manually. It is important that this knob is guided by the groove which goes in this little S-curve. Because of this curve the metal bar also makes a small sideways movement while sliding forward and backward in the coil. This sideways movement is what makes the rod moving the tie to operate the turn out. So if the knob isn't guided in this curved groove the thin rod will just move forward and backwards in the small hole in the tie, and not operating the turn out. This is the same mechanism for electric and manual turn outs. The manual ones are just missing the coil wire and the wire to connect it with the switch to operate it.

If you go the way Dominique is writing about then you don't need the whole mechanism, since those external underfloor drives connects direct with the tie.