S-Helper Service Track | #3 Turnout | Historical Note

December 2000
The first release of these turnouts can be identified by the gray plastic back plate, open frog with guard rails (no closed-frog "flipper"), "short" frog rail ends, and a single spike per tie per side.

There were enough serious issues with this turnout to cause S-Helper Service to recall these turnouts. These were the fact that Lionel engines, whose wheels were gauged too tight, could not run across the turnout; the phosphor bronze contacts under the points, over time stopped conducting electricity, leading to dead sidings, and the too-few-spikes led locomotive that derailed to knocking pieces of rail loose.

November 2003
These boxes were labeled with part #00298A and #00299A. These have a black metal back plate. The above-mentioned plastic back plate would melt if the coil inside the turnout wound up being hooked-up incorrectly. This was a safety issue if used with unprotected transformers and/or placed directly on carpets or rugs. These turnouts had a closed frog with "flipper" and no guard rail, which was to resolve the issue with Lionel engines. Additionally, they had "short" frog rail ends, a torsion spring to detent points, and double spikes per tie per side to resolve the loose-rail issue. The reason for the delay in getting these to market was the power-routing using the coils and micro switches to work correctly.

After release to the public, there were three major issues detected. Customers could still hook up the cables out-of-phase causing electrical problems. The slide switches were being used by customers to power sidings, but the switches weren't designed for such frequent use and started to fail. When these turnouts were used in manual mode, the point rail did not detent properly against the stock rail.

February 2005
These boxes were labeled with part #00298B and #00299B, but only if hand-written when shipped from S-Helper Service; the "B" was not printed by the factory. This release added a torsion spring to detent the points to ensure good physical contact when the turnout was used manually, added a keyed extension connector to fix the electrical phase, incorrect-hook-up problem, and improved slide switch contacts to be able to handle their repetitive use.

The major issue discovered with this improved version was that some engines that had a gliding "shoe" to pick up power, such as some Lionel diesels and the, then new, S-Helper Service 2-8-0, had shoes just long enough to cause a momentary short across the frog.

April 2007
These boxes were labeled with part #00298C and #00299C, but only if hand-written when shipped from S-Helper Service; the "C" was not printed by the factory. This release changed the point guard rail from being the "short" length to the "long" length to prevent a temporary short when engines with long pick-up shoes ran over it.

The only issue found with this version was that sometimes the points did not have enough momentum to complete the throw.

January 2008
The boxes were labeled with part #00298D and #00299D from the factory. Also, a small rectangular "D" is imprinted on the underside of the turnout (a first). This version added the linkage improvements to fix the incomplete-throw issue.

Some of these version D turnouts arrived with the coil wired in reverse, causing the red LED to light up when the turnout was set in the straight position. However, those were all found and fixed at S-Helper Service's headquarters before being shipping to customers and dealers.

Don believes this final version was the smoothest-operating turnout he had seen. The photo shows the final version. Note that MTH released this same version during their ownership of the product line.