Thanks Grey! Last night I got all the cork laid! Today after Easter dinner's with both families, I built the #6 turnout in ME Code 55 rail. This way the mainline is all continuous C55. For reliability I want Atlas C80 in the staging. To transition between the two, I took a short piece of Atlas C55 flex I had from a previous layout and an Atlas C80 5" Snap Track and soldered them together with Atlas C55 rail joiners. This left the C80 up taller than the C55. I then took this assembly to my belt sander with a fine grit belt and tapered the C80 rail top down to match the C55. This created a nice ramp that should prove reliable. I also hit the ties on the bottom of the C80 the same way to match the thinner C55 ties. Then I soldered this to the diverging leg of the turnout and test fit. It looks good! Since this will all be inside Tunnel 14 I will leave the turnout skeletonized. I did add more PCB ties once out of the Fast Tracks fixture. Now its on to building the C80 turnout in staging and then I can really start laying track!
I like the quality of your construction and you've made excellent progress so far. I'm especially impressed with that transition track. I just wish you had done yours before I did mine so I could copy off of you!! I took the opposite approach of crimping a Code 80 Joiner so that the code 55 rail height would match the C80. It ain't pretty but it works - so far and as long as I align things juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust right! The shiny round things are 3/4" nails that go down into the foam below to hold everything in place. My staging is removable so there is a bit of complexity involved. Keep up the good work.
I see that you are using code 80 in your staging areas for reliability. I did the same on my layout, but more for the cost factor since the code 80 flex is cheaper than the code 55. I actually wish I didn't use the code 80 at all, and just went with all code 55. The code 55 flex has been completely trouble free, and if your using Fast Tracks switches, I wouldn't hesitate to use the code 55 in hidden areas. I have a mixture of plastic and metal wheels, and have had no issues with the atlas code 55 flex. I really haven't seen any more reliability in the code 80 track.
I'll never forgot standing in the middle of Williams Loop during a side trip when Railfest 99 was going on. We had the place all to ourselves, and all of a sudden, two Kiwi's popped out of nowhere! We talked trains the rest fo the afternoon, and I got some great footage of a Dash-9 blowing exhaust flames about 12 feet up as it went underneath.
I completely agree. In my experience, the super-flexy code 80 will pop, kink and break out of the "spikeheads" much more readily than ME55. One show our club was at had direct sunlight shining on the modules for several hours during an unseasonably warm March day and any track that "popped" was Atlas80. None of the ME55 on my modules showed any signs of kinking or popping off the roadbed. This was our clubs first experience with ME55 vs Atlas80 and further experience showed that the ME70, ME55 and ME40 trackage, after being laid and ballasted exactly the same as the Atlas80 (except NO NAILS) was much more stable. All hidden trackage in my layout is and will be ME55. Cheers! Bob Gilmore That's why I have a bundle of Atlas80 flex wobbling in the corner of my workshop and it will never get used by me (I inherited it).
Diggin' up bones... I found this thread while searching for something else, and had to check it out. I wonder how this build is coming?
Me too! I completely missed this one when he started it. And am now intrigued! Had an uncle lived here and worked at Climax mines. We spent multiple summers visiting him and getting lost out in the mountains, and watching BN trains go up to Climax! Purty!
Major necro. Maybe the OP got kids going and well, trains took a back seat. It would be nice if he would come back and give an update if any.
