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PostPosted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:25 pm 
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Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:59 pm
Posts: 40
Greetings,

The order I put in for new turnouts and ties arrived (some stuff on B/O) but I have what I need to start replacing the track on my layout. I have a small shelf section of the layout where all of the turnouts are straight and the trackage is all straight. I figured this was a good place to start.

The original track is Atlas code 83 flex track and turnouts on woodlandscenics roadbed. I have the main line and the passing siding torn up. The road bed has been replaced with cork. The two turnout "twist ties" ties to the siding have been glued down and most of the cross ties for the main line have been put in place.

My 5yr old son is using the "tie racks" to set the cross ties for me. He places all of the ties and then I pick up the ties with masking tape. :D So far he is enjoying it and doing a good job at it.

I will post some pictures later.

Christopher


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:45 am 
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Greetings,

The remaining old track and roadbed has been removed from the first section. Most of the new cork roadbed is in place.

I decided yesterday that I would move the turnout that is on the far left further back and into the curve leading to the rest of the layout. This turnout is on the mainline to the passing siding. By doing this I extended the passing siding a few inches and the location of a few turouts for the rest of the area are now futher apart. The curve is a large radius and the turnout is a #6 so the curve of the turnout is not very sharp.

Those tie racks are really great. I have two sets of them. Yesterday my son filled out five full racks and I did one. So, I have six sets of ties ready to lay down. The first few set of ties I glued down were spaced off of the turnout ties. When I reach the next turnout I have no way of knowing if the spacing will come out exact. Where should any adjusting of the spacing be located; by the turout or some place in the middle?

I was going to take a picture last night but the camera was missing. Turns out it was upstairs. I will see about posting a picture or two tonight, I hope.

Christopher


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 9:51 am 
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Posts: 40
Greetings,

Last night I was able to only get a small amount of work done. Therefore there is not much of an update. Here are the current photos.

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Once all of the ties are in place the next job will be to drill holes for the turnout machines and staining the ties.

More later.

Christopher


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:03 pm 
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Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2005 10:48 am
Posts: 365
Location: East Texas - USA
Christopher,

Some nice progress on the project. Congratulations.

I would suggest that the cork be fully laid in place and lightly sanded before attaching the ties. Several locations in the pictures appear to have ties placed very close to areas where cork is not yet installed. You want want the roadbed seams to be very smooth and prevent those joints from affecting the track structure.

Be sure to complete the turnouts and get them installed first and then complete the track rails. You'll find some very slight and easy transitions may be required for final alignments.

Nice work and I'm sure a rewarding experience.

-ed-

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-ed mccamey-
COSLAR RR - http://www.coslar.us/
NMRA Standards and Conformance Department
PROTO & FINE Scale Coordinator
I estimate I have about 5 pounds of coupler springs somewhere in the vicinity of my workbench.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 1:42 pm 
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Greetings Ed,

The turnout and cross ties on the main line are glued down. The other turnout ties are only in place for reference. Your point is well taken. The turnout ties in the 3rd picture towards the front help to make your point. I will need to trim the right edge of the wood frame work so I can set the ties in place correctly.

The cork is getting sanded and cleaned before gluing. I am using 100 grit paper with a sanding block. There is a spot I found this morning where the cork poped up some and then dried in that position. That bit of cork will need to be sanded down a good bit. I am also thinking of taking a sanding block to the top of all of the ties themselves with 220 or 280 grit paper. I did not do this for the samples I built earlier. Comments on this?

Christopher


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:00 pm 
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Location: East Texas - USA
Christopher,

Absolutely - I recommend doing a final 'fine' sanding of the ties before spiking the rails. Use a rather long sanding block to avoid dips and a 'wavy' surface.

Our model physics is not the same as the prototype - having smooth and level track is important (as well as gentle transitions, both vertical and horizontal in curves).

For attaching the roadbed to the sub-roadbed, I prefer to sue heavy weights (I use blocks of steel) to get things really tied down. Meticulous track will pay off in reliability, it's worth the effort!

-ed-

_________________
-ed mccamey-
COSLAR RR - http://www.coslar.us/
NMRA Standards and Conformance Department
PROTO & FINE Scale Coordinator
I estimate I have about 5 pounds of coupler springs somewhere in the vicinity of my workbench.


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 12:14 pm 
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Greetings all,

The first section I am working on now has all of the ties in place. It turns out that this area has used just over 1000 cross ties. I did not count them but I had to open the second bag to complete the job.

Before I paint the ties (which my son is really looking forward to helping with) I need to drill throwbar holes for the two switches coming off the main line. This section of track is built on top of a short wall so these two are the only ones that will have switch motors. The other turnouts will have manual throws. I plan to run the wires for the frogs to a Hex Frog Juicer. I want to get these wires placed before I start building the turnouts.

Here are some pictures of the current state of the work.
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Take care,
Christopher


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:47 am 
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Greetings,

Work is progressing. I know I have not posted in some time but I do have three turnouts completed except for cutting the gaps at the frogs. I tested the ele. connections and I was able to isolate the points and turn on the DCC system to check all the polarity. Because the section I am working on is being built on the top of a short wall it has made wiring these turnouts interesting. Here is what I did.

Of course, the first thing was to get all of the ties down. After that I sanded the tops of the ties. Power needed to be routed to the frog area so I used my dremel with a router type bit to cut channels in the cork and through the extra wood on the turnout. The channel was then filled in with the wire that has a block soldered to the end.
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My five yr. old son then took over with a Floquil paint pen and painted most of the ties. I came along and painted some ties a different color and then touched up the areas he missed.
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Ballasting then came next. I have never enjoyed this job and I think this is typ. for most MRR's. However, I do not find it a dull job anymore. Adding the ballast was very fast and easy. It was poured right from the jar down the middle of the track area. The first pass with my finger pushed most of the stones down and off onto the shoulders of the roadbed. The remaining work was to lightly brush the rest off the ties and then dress up the shoulders. The rest is typ.; wet and then glue in place.
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Once the glue was dry I could then start laying track. The stock rails go in place as per the directions and the predrilled holes. The Frog point was made using a point form tool and the soldering jig. The bottom of the frog point was then tined as was the metal that will feed it power. Once located, I pushed the spikes holding the rails down tight and soldered the frog to the metal plate. A quick test with a multi meter showed I had good contact.
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The points and wing rails were made as per the directions. Once test fitted the base of the wing was tined and it too was soldered to the metal plate. Some excess solder flowed into the gaps between the Frog and the Wing but this was cleaned out with a section of hacksaw blade. The throw bar was gaped and put in place. Again these turnouts are on top of a short wall so they are all manual throw turnouts. I checked the whole turnout with the multi meter again and found that I was getting some contact in the throw bar so I added a few more gaps with the point of a hobby knife blade. The guard rails were glued in place with med. thick CA. The spikes will be added too.
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DSC02786.JPG
DSC02786.JPG [ 180.67 KiB | Viewed 16232 times ]


Christopher


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:34 pm 
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That looks great so far AW.

Quick question. How did you isolate the frog? I understand how the copper plate feeds it power, but I don't see any isolation gaps? Unless I am missing something?


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:00 pm 
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Greetings Tetters,

I have not cut the isolation gaps yet. I will do that a bit later as I want to do them all at one time for this section. I was able to isolate the frogs for testing by moving a set of points half way and that broke the ele. flow.

Christopher


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:00 pm 
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Posts: 40
Greetings all,

I have been moving along well on this replacment project. The fisrt section is nearly complete.

All of the ballasting is nearly done. The main line is nice clean gray while the sidings are the buff color. They will get some further weathering later. I have a few areas that will need some touching up. ther are also the wires that will need to be hidden as well.

I did decide to get a turnout that had been made using one of the fixtures. It was constucted for me. I decided to have this one made for me because the back drop is so close to the track I couldn't really get my hands in there to work. The turnout is very well made and ther is plenty of extra trackoff the ends that joining it to the rest of the track will be no problem. You can see the turnout (now painted) in the third picture.

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I have also added two videos of a box car going through some of the turnouts. Here are the links.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRqSHfNcM1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly8z4kDewkw

Take care,
Christopher


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:03 am 
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Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:59 pm
Posts: 40
Greetings all,

I know I have not posted in some time but i have been busy working on the RR. I have finished the track work on the shelf section. The gaps are all cut for the frogs and my HFJ arrived on Mon. It took about 10 min. to mount and wire. That afternoon I was switching box cars and had a very happy 5 yr. old throwing the manual switches. The switches off the main still have to have their switch machines remounted.

I hope to get a few pictures uploaded before weeks end.

I have started around the Left hand side to the main part of the train room.

Christopher


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 7:41 pm 
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Posts: 41
Your progress thread has made me wonder if more FT users should post layout progress pics of their own. I know from a personal perspective, I'd be a little shy about posting up my work for fear of critical review by some of the experts. A little too late now to really change anything. :oops:

I have pretty much completed the track work on my layout, and wonder if I should start a thread here?


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 9:15 am 
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:32 am 
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:27 pm
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Looks great ! You're images are stellar quality, and the track-work looks awesome.

Great work. I wish more people would post images of their track-work here... It makes the job worth while XD.

Cheers !

Chris

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It's not my place to run the train, the whistle I can't blow. It's not my place to say how far the trains allowed to go. It's not my place to shoot off steam, nor even clang the bell. But let the damn thing jump the track and see who catches hell !


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