[NorfolkSouthernguy]

Can someone recommend a retailer who offers up the best pricing for HO turnouts/switches and every thing track related?

Switches are so expensive and anything less than common track pieces are very high. I am in need of several “specialty” track pieces. I thought that perhaps someone here knows of a good source for this. Lots of variety and very competitive pricing.

Can someone offer up some info on this?

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Can someone recommend a retailer who offers up the best pricing for HO turnouts/switches and every thing track related?

Switches are so expensive and anything less than common track pieces are very high. I am in need of several “specialty” track pieces. I thought that perhaps someone here knows of a good source for this. Lots of variety and very competitive pricing.

Can someone offer up some info on this?

sometimes you can find good prices on used stuff on eBay or Facebook market place. If you only want new then train shows sometimes Sellers will cut deals. If I buy new online I go to www.trainworld.com or modeltrainstuff.com or crusaderrailservices.com

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Quite frankly the very best deal you are going to find for turnouts is to build them yourself, and you don't need a lot of fancy tools other than a soldering iron and a handful of gauge tools. I've estimated my regular turnouts cost me around $3-$4 each to build, and the dual-gauge turnouts are about $4-$5. And if you need specialty pieces, you might as well learn to make them yourself so you can get *exactly* what you're looking for instead of something you have to try to make-do with.

There have been a number of posts here from various folks (including myself) discussing techniques for hand-laying turnouts. Take a look around, and if it's something you want to pursue you can always get help here if you get stuck.

 

[tankist]

I had good luck with preowned turnouts from ebay. after some time hunting I built the supply of peco with few walthers and ME in the mix. The few I had to get new indeed stung the wallet some.avoided specialty track such as diamond crossings in my design. If I ever design with special angles I will be hand-laying.

good luck

 

[PrairieKnight]

is there a certain track manufacturer that you are looking for? I use Atlas. When they were out of what I needed recently I asked this same question in a different forum. Model Train Stuff was suggested and they seemed to have a pretty good selection.
https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/

 

[NorfolkSouthernguy]

Quite frankly the very best deal you are going to find for turnouts is to build them yourself, and you don't need a lot of fancy tools other than a soldering iron and a handful of gauge tools. I've estimated my regular turnouts cost me around $3-$4 each to build, and the dual-gauge turnouts are about $4-$5. And if you need specialty pieces, you might as well learn to make them yourself so you can get *exactly* what you're looking for instead of something you have to try to make-do with.

There have been a number of posts here from various folks (including myself) discussing techniques for hand-laying turnouts. Take a look around, and if it's something you want to pursue you can always get help here if you get stuck.

I never thought of doing them myself. I will look for the posts on here and see how that process goes. $3 - $5 each is great!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

It's a trade-off of time for money. I've heard some people can complete a turnout in an hour or two, but I'm nowhere near that yet. And dual-gauge turnouts are about 4x more complicated. However I enjoy building them myself, and when I realized I was able to do this it significantly changed the structure of the layout I was designing.