New Point Levers for Norwich & District Society of Model Engineers
by Pete King 10/12/2023

In December 2022 I started a project to replace all the point levers at Eaton Park miniature railway. For a long time I had watched members kicking the original point levers to change direction and, worse still, kicking the point blades. Many of the mechanisms were damaged and hardly any had usable levers, leaving the members little choice.

The new point levers needed to fit the following criteria.

1. Be of very robust design
2. They had to be trailable
3. They could be left in position when the signal box was in operation.
4. They should have a direction indicator visible to approaching drivers.


All of these factors were taken into consideration during the design stage and, once happy that my design would work, I set about making a prototype in my workshop.

They needed to be robust and I decided to use 6mm plate for the majority of components and in mid December 2022 I took the prototype to Eaton Park and fitted it to the most used point between turntable and running lines in the station. I asked for comments from members over the next few weeks and all seemed favourable.

After about a month of trials I was happy that we should change all the levers to this design and after getting quotes for laser cutting from Optima Stainless in Kings Lynn I asked the committee to agree a budget of £500 which was readily accepted.

Members not over familiar with the railway may be surprised to know that we counted 17 points all of which needed new levers. Sadly we later found out that our adding was wrong and when all were fitted we were one short.

Each point lever required a set of 8 components and these were laser cut by Optima Stainless in Kings Lynn to my CAD drawings in early February 2022. Pivot pins, collars and counterweights were kindly made for me by Brian Jacobs and I then began the long task of deburring, welding, painting and assembly in my home workshop and back garden, a very long and tedious task.

By June I was ready to begin fitting the levers and had designed two different types of operating rods, one for the manual points and the other for those fitted with air cylinders, the latter needed to be operated either by hand or air from the signal box. More on that later.

Fitting progressed slowly with the average being about two per Tuesday work session although those in the field, four, were all completed in one day. As with all projects the worst always seem to be left until last and I was very grateful to have assistance from Brian (king of the concrete) Sayer when it came to the last two, both of which needed additional concrete pads to allow for a secure fixing.

The last one to do was outside our compound between the tunnel and first crossing.

This point was a one off, incorporating a moving frog arrangement, the mechanism for which was forever seizing up and causing problems. I have looked at this point many times over the years and now decided along with a few other members that it would be possible to modify it to a standard mechanism. Back to the drawing board and over a period of four or five Tuesdays I took the moving frogs (Red on the photo above) and machined flangeways into them (Blue on photo) before welding them in place. I also made new check rails (Yellow on photo) and welded them in place. It all seemed to work well and I finally removed the flimsy mechanism which ran alongside the point and we were back to a standard point. The only issue was with 5" gauge locomotives and rolling stock, the small wheels had a tendency to drop into the larger than normal gaps caused by this point being a much larger radius than all the others. This was solved by welding in a couple of blocks (Green on photo) to aid the smaller wheel flanges over the large gap.

I think it worth pointing out that the levers fitted to the air operated points have the addition of a stainless steel pin on a chain (See above). If the signal box comes back into use, and that may well happen now that Simon Reed along with Andrew, Tom and others have taken up the cudgel, these levers should be moved into the upright position and the pin inserted to allow the air cylinders free movement. For the two point levers at the end of the departure platform it would also be good practice to put the levers vertical and insert the pins when normal running from the two platforms thus the wheels and point blades will get less wear when continually trailing.

One final thought when changing points - please check to make sure the blades go all the way across and if they don't then the chances are they are being fouled by a stone or nut shells. Please don't force them just give them a clean!

I would like to thank all members who have contributed to the project ,whether or not I have mentioned you by name, your assistance was much appreciated.

Pete King