REPLACING FAULTY POINTS
One of the Peco points on my layout has started playing up. I’ve tried to repair the blades a few times but I think it’s time to accept defeat and replace it. However, the track has been ballasted and I’m loathe to damage the surrounding tracks. How can I get the point out with the least amount of disruption?
Derek Harman, by e-mail
Paul A. Lunn says: It can be daunting to remove a faulty point, particularly a fully ballasted one. And yet, like most things in railway modelling, there’s often a simple solution.
Start by wetting the ballast with warm water, allowing it to soak into the surface. After a while, remove as much of the ballast as you can with a flat screwdriver blade. This is where adhesives such as Deluxe Materials’ Ballast Bond prove their worth, as the glue is readily softened with hot water, whereas generic PVAS can be impervious to moisture once fully cured.
With a cutting disc mounted in a mini drill, cut out the offending point as close to the rail joints as possible, cutting through the fishplates themselves. Try and limit any cutting damage to the point, not adjacent track and carefully lift the point away. Clean away the remaining ballast and remove the broken fishplates from the ends of the rails still in situ.
Slide new fishplates onto the ends of the plain tracks (see above), pushing them all the way home – you will have to remove an extra chair per rail – leaving space for the new point to be dropped into place.
Align the rails and, with fine-nosed pliers, carefully slide the fishplates onto corresponding point rails. Be sure to test the operation of the point fully before re-ballasting.