SCISSOR POINTS

The scissor crossing is probably the most complicated piece of trackwork you can arrange. There are three ‘valid’ routes: both lines straight, one crossover set with the other two points set for straight and the other crossover set, with the remaining two points set for straight ahead. The invalid route is both crossovers set to cross. Six frogs require switching, but as long as the invalid route of both crossovers isn’t selected, then switching a scissors crossover isn’t too difficult. Only the acute ‘vees’ need to be switched as the shallow ‘vees’ are connected to the respective blue and red feeds, provided that insulated gaps are added as shown in yellow in the diagram below. The point frogs rely on the blades for polarity switching. If you want to add switched frogs into the main line track, then cuts will have to be made into the rails, as shown.