12v Half Straights (with geometry possibilities)

[Unfinished_Projects]

Lego 12v Half Straights 

              With my current addiction to old 12v trains I found myself looking to create more complex layouts.  One piece I hadn't used yet was the (1) crossover piece in my collection.  Using Bluebrick it became apparent that using only one crossing sometimes results in a half track offset, so I decided to cut 3 of my worst straight tracks in half.  Note that I am not the first person to do this, but I have not found any documentation of it being done with blue era track, or many examples of geometry possibilities. 

To cut the conductors I used a handheld rotary tool with a cutoff wheel to get through the metal rails, and a thin hacksaw to go through the plastic.  As you can see, I severely cracked one of my half straights by clamping it too hard in the vise. Oops!

 

Cutting the rails is much easier, I simply marked the center and used the hacksaw to make the cut.

 

As you might know, blue era conductive rails are slightly different than grey era rails.  One of the changes between blue and grey era was the addition of mid rail sleepers in the grey era.  While it seems like you can simply attach a 2x8 plate to the center of a blue era rail, there is actually a couple plastic supports (seen below in rendering) blocking where the studs would go.  When creating a half straight out of blue era conductors, these supports much be removed.  I used a handheld rotary tool with a sanding bit to carefully carve them away.

 

I recreated the electrical connection tabs using rolled up aluminum foil.  I'm sure I'll have to replace these whenever I change my layout, but its really not too difficult and requires very little aluminum foil.

 

This is the finished product! Works perfectly!

 

Here are some interesting geometry possibilities that are opened up with half straights on hand:

*Bluebrick does not have a 12v half straight, so I used a 9v one in its place*

 

Thanks for looking! If anyone else uses custom cut half straights (of any track type), feel free to post pictures of interesting layout possibilities!

Unfinished_Projects  

Edited March 19, 2019 by Unfinished_Projects

[harnbak]

Good work - have done this too, inspired by this post 

 

[moustic]

this one is an illegal one ? this is short-circuit ! 

 

[XG BC]

yea this IS definitely a short circuit! It ucours between the lower switches! Dont try to build this!!! (unless you are isolating the circuits and including some logic).

XG BC

[Unfinished_Projects]

Yes it's an "illegal" design.  I should have mentioned that this particular design would only be useful for battery powered trains, or as XG BC said, if properly isolated.

Unfinished_Projects