The Proto87 commercial turnouts from Stephen Hatch at Railway Engineering are a beautiful work of art. I sent Stephen 4 sticks of the Right-O-Way code 81 rail with its VERY nice profile and code 70 sized bottom web and railhead dimensions. Railway Engineering constructed two number 8 turnouts to proto87 specifications. The turnouts included the optional wooden ties attached.
On arrival, I immediately attached rails in each direction to test and evaluate. My Proto87 rolling stock and test engine performed flawlessly. On close evaluation, the routes were exactly dead on with the Proto87 track gage. Clearances through the flangeways and frog were precise. The gauge is exactly .649 inches. Frog wing rail flangeway spacing is .023 inch and the guard (check) rails are set to .022 inch. The flow of the closure rail was smooth and accurately eased. The point rails, wing gather ends, and guardrails are all nicely ground to very exacting and smooth gather angles. The Rail