No turnouts yet, still in transit. But I got the inner mainline down because I was itching to run trains. I'm using HO cork on the mainlines, I'll use N scale on the siding, and the stub tracks will lay directly on the foam board. Here's two photos of laying the track and the first train, which happened exactly at midnight! The track is all soldered together, but not yet glued in place. All I have is Elmers all purpose glue, but I hear that doesn't hold well on the plastic ties.
My order of Code 55 and 40 rail and PC Board Turnout ties just arrived! If all goes well I hope to complete and install my first turnout later on tonight!
Elmer's works just fine on the ties. It is also easier to wet down and lift off the track than Aline's Tacky glue and similar. Just use pushpins to hold in place until dry.
HO roadbed? That's quite a right of way you'll have! I'm still not sold on the town side of the track plan. I'd add a spur towards the main part of town and add a freight station. I really liked Randy's interchange idea and thought that plan was actually the most interesting (for me). But whatever works for you! Interested to see how this comes together!
Well, the HO cork will just raise the right of way above the surrounding scenery, the lower half will be the built up earth to create the ditch, and only the top half will be ballast, not the full HO cork height. (See attached for the closest example I have) Could you link us to that plan specifically that you liked? The reason I chose to go without a spur towards Main Street is that, like you say, it sorta feels like one should be there. But by leaving it out, I have much more room to more accurately model the town, which by the way Tracy, I think I'm going to name McKibben.
Milestone! My first ever hand-laid turnout is complete! This one is the first of a 3 turnout group that will be one piece once finished. I'm using the #6 templates from Fast Tracks, but as can be seen some have been trimmed at the ends. That lets me keep the 23" radius curve and still fit in place. These are all Code 55 turnouts. All the rail shaped and ties cut to length: The three individual turnouts are constructed with as few rails as possible, allowing one rail to span as far as possible before an insulated gap is necessary: The first turnout complete: Lets see, I got out of class at 6:30, got home around 7 then went to Kinkos to print out the templates, so I probably started around 7:30 and I just now finished this in, lets see... 6 hours! *whew*!
Salute, Mark, I've never tried that myself, and it sure looks good on what you did. What is your rail size and where did you get it from? I'm seeing enough tie chunks that I'm wondering if you 'stripped' flextrack.
Thanks Randy! The rail is C55 that I bought raw (its cheaper than stripping flex track, though I did consider it) along with Fast Tracks PC-Board Turnout Ties. Later I will attempt 4 Code 40 turnouts. So far everything appears to work well with a MT wheelset. My finger tips are raw from holding these tiny pieces of rail while shaping with a file. I wish I could afford those point jigs. I'll survive though.
And here they are! The first three turnouts fully installed and working flawlessly! Plus, I dont even have the guard rails in yet! I left long leads which were threaded straight into the flex. You might also notice the spot on the last tie of each turnout where the flex rail will be/has been soldered to. And here they are fully installed. I ran a 17 car train through, lead by my Mikado and if I didn't know there were turnouts there, you would not know it. Absolutely no movement by any car as they ran through the turnouts! The bottom track is not secured yet. What a great experience this has been so far! Projects like these really bring up that sentimental value of any work you do!
This is the one I liked the most (personal preference, as I'm not much of a roundy round guy ) I thought it gave you the best of both worlds, should your preferences change sometime down the road.
That's interesting. That design was my least favorite of the revisions. If I were to look at it from an operational stand point, the double cross over completely messes everything up as far as ease for switching operations goes. But nonetheless, I'm sticking with the most recent plan. Tonight I laid cork for Thunder Pass and I'll have the track in place and wired by tomorrow night. I cant wait to see the first main line meet of the layout! Once Thunder Pass is operational, I plan to carve out the sub-terrain and raise the sub-roadbed to its appropriate height. The rails will be approx 1 foot above the river bed in Thunder Valley. Then eventually, the rock face along Thunder Ridge will rise about 9-10 inches above the rails as well.
I forgot to mention, the double cross over was the only thing I would have changed! Still having fun watching the progress!
Thunder Pass is now laid and feeders have been dropped! Now just to flip the layout over and solder the feeders to the bus cable. We should be operational within the hour! And of course, pictures will follow!
Construction on the first rail line through Thunder Ridge began in 1882 and was completed by July 1883. The success of the line over the next 20 years of moving freight and passengers across the remote mountains called for the addition of a second line. Construction on the second line, to be named Thunder Pass, began in fall of 1902, and while new building techniques allowed for a more direct route over more rugged terrain, building the line took much longer than anticipated. Construction was officially complete on July 13th 1904, but after the first trains traveled the line it was clear that some alterations must be made. Just as new engineering techniques allowed for easier construction in more rugged locations, new engineering in the process of laying track provided faster, more reliable railway. Unfortunately this new engineering was found to be incompatible with most of the equipment that operated regularly through Thunder Valley. Passengers aboard one of the first trains on Thunder Pass described the experience as "awful" and "annoying". Some were frightened, others grew sick to the stomach as the train's wheelsets hammered across each spike laid in the track work, vigorously vibrating the entire train. The Thunder Ridge administration decided it was best to close the line completely while adjustments were made to the track. One young man came up with the idea of constructing a specialized grinder to roll down the line and grind approximately 1/4th of an inch off the spike heads in order to fix the problem. The plan was approved and put into commission. Just 3 days later the grinder creeped down the rails of Thunder Pass, but unfortunately instead of shaving off 1/4th inch of spike, the grinders could only take off 1/16th. They were lucky however in that the initial pass took just 3 hours. It was decided to simply run the grinder back over the rails 4 more times to remove a total of 5/16th from the spikes. By midnight on the 4th day, Thunder Pass was re-opened to all traffic and after the grinding, was reported to be one of the smoothest lines traveled in the west. Well that was fun wasn't it? It was fun writing it at least. So here's Thunder Pass, officially complete! And here's our first mainline meet! And now, I must be off to close Thunder Pass and bring out the grinder train (aka sandpaper) to grind down those pesky Atlas C55 Spike heads.
Officially complete? I thought there were going to be mountains, and a river, and a town... Apparently I misunderstood... :tb-wink:
Heck, I just want to know how they managed to complete the initial line twenty years before they started....
