Tenmille Points

Update - March 2012 Terry at Tenmille contacted me to say that the manufacturing issues regarding their points have been fixed, and that the information below (dating from before 2005) is now out of date.

Peter Trounce

I have some experience of Tenmille 45mm points.
They're OK if you treat what you buy as a semi-finished kit of parts !!
Check all the dimensions, rebend the curved bits, use low-silver solder to resolder things, and use epoxy putty in the flangeways to prevent small wagons leaping into the air and derailing.
After that, they work fine, and are plenty weatherproof.

Rod Nipper says:

I hope Peter Trounce and Sam Evans will not object if I quote their previous responses to my question regarding derailing on brand new, ready made Tenmille 32mm points as I found their experiences / advice very helpful -

Peter Trounce said :
There is nothing wrong with Tenmille points that cannot be corrected. (I should say that my experience has been with 45mm but I'm sure there are common problems.)
The soldering has a habit of coming adrift with use. When it does I resolder it with the low-silver type (430 degree) which melts with the usual iron or gun, but stays put.
The curvature of the rails is often not right. Sighting along the rail will usually show where the bending is not sufficient.
The flange clearance at the check rails is usually too wide (unless you're using wheels with thicker flanges than normal). The check rail can be bent in near its middle to give the proper clearance.
At the gaps near the frog, wheels of lightweight cars will drop down and bounce in the air as they hit the sharp point, likely derailing. The usual fix is to lay in some epoxy below the gap so that the flanges have something to drop onto. Then the wheels will ride smoothly.
All in all, treat the points as a kit of parts to be sorted out. The end result will be good.

Sam Evans said :
I suspect that the flangeways are probably 3mm. If they are you will need to reduce them by 0.5mm minimim, preferably to 2.2mm. The Tenmille checkrail chairs once provided with the Brandbright Point kits were also 3mm gap.
The gap at the frog is similarly caused by the wing rail flange ways being too wide.
and ...
As I am not au fait with Tenmille point kits I will have to do some guesswork.

i) If the checkrails are plastic you could stick a sliver of Plastruct ABS sheet on the working face to 'shim' the gap down, ditto using brass sheet if the check rail is brass rail. There are those in the USA who have used both methods to cure problems with LGB (wossa standard) on non LGB track

ii) My preferred method is to remove the current check rail, entirely if it is plastic, down to sleeper top surface level. If brass, hang on to the rail but reduce the chair holding the check rail to sleeper level. Likewise trim back the chair holding the running rail to suit the new flangeway.

Get some brass strip from your local model shop. A K & S metal centre usually displayed on the counter should hold what you need. Choose a thickness which will, with the height of the check rail, bring the head of the latter flush with the running rail head or be VERY slightly above/below it.

Make some tabs out of the strip and SOLDER them onto the check rail (see illustration). It is best if the pin holes are such that they are as close to the check rail as possible to prevent the check rail being pushed up and back by heavy locos. This may not be possible as I do not know how the Tenmille plastic base will look.

Buy some Railwood roller gauges. I believe they have 2.2 mm flangeways. File a flat in the outer flange on one side of the gauge so you can use it at the frog nose, then use the gauge(s) to position the check rail while you pin it in place.

As to the gap at the frog nose there is little you can do about that without a complete rebuilding. The suggestion of filling the gap with resin/plastic padding so that the flange is supported by it while crossing the gap is a fair one, however it only works best if all the flange depths are the same/very close. Folk running modified LGB stock (ca 3mm deep) or to Merioneth standards (OK in the flangeways) at 1mm deep may still have problems. Recent coarse scale Ga O standards are 1.5mm deep, while the Tenmille wheels use 2mm depth as per GIMRA standards......

The usual time you get problems here are when you or guest are running small wheeled stock at HST speeds. SLOW DOWN, it will be clunky but should stay on the track.

Instead of trying to minister to all your points, do the ones on your running lines first, particularly those which have been problematic. That way you can take a calm and rational approach rather than a 'tails & whiskers' job.

Thanks gents, trust the repeat of this advice helps others

Rod Nipper

John Angell

Oh deary me!
What a performance!
Wouldn't it be easier to start from scratch with a drawing?
All power and success to your elbow.
Regards, John A.

On a related note,
Tenmille rail is code 197 bullhead. (197 thousandths of an inch)
Peco rail is code 200 semi-flat bottom

Alan Smith

May I put in my two-pennyworth about Tenmille points?
Initially, I made a couple of these from the kits then available, (about 10 years ago) and had the same problems as stated by others. It may have been due to my inexperience but I don't think so. The Peco points I found to be very good but expensive. I then had a go at making my own from two 1yd lengths of Peco track, not that difficult but a certain amount of patience needed. [These] have been in use for some 11 years without problems, even with visiting locos, (apart from the deposits left by the resident bird population!)

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