Ken, please tell us more about operating deep-flange wheels on code 100 track and turnouts. Are you saying that highrail wheels from AM or SHS or SSA will operate on code 100 ? Will the deep-flange turnouts handle scale and the non-Flyer highrail both ? - Earl Henry, Nashville In a message dated 1/6/2012 9:20:57 P.M. Central Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi guys, Well it is Friday night and the fun started last night when the Pines and Prairies S scale Workshop stopped by for a visit. I had an opportunity to finish (almost) a turnout for Jeff Saine, it is a Code 100 "fast tracks" built to allow a deep flange wheel go through it. Jeff is building an industrial area patterned after Duluth and I though the lower profile rail would look neat for trackage off the mainline. Like I said, I almost finished it, I had missed one little detail, a gap on one of the PC board ties in the frog area, an it was very difficult to find. When I did, the engine I choose to demo it had a glitch in its DCC program. A few minutes of frustration and another engine and it was show time. The train ran flawlessly through the straight route, and then flawlessly through the diverging route. Success! Jeff took the turnout home to add the remaining ties and paint it up for installation. I am really looking forward to getting this turnout and a cou ple more into a scene to see how it looks. We have a number of good modelers in the PPSSW who use the deeper flange wheels but no Flyer so the code 100 rail will work fine. It is so much easier to build turnouts using code 100 then the code 125 or 148 rail so I hope this is a big boost to getting them along on their layouts. Jeff spent the balance of the night building points for more turnouts. Ron Kemp finished decorating a PS-1 boxcar for the Buffalo Creek railroad. This is not Brooks railroad but a line in the Buffalo New York. I will drop a photo of it in the mhrywest file. So anyway things got done, I didn't get anything done on the layout so tonight I put in another light fixture so now I am really basking in the light. Amazing what a difference the light makes in the layout room. I know, the best answer is to get the room done before building the layout but I guess I get things backasswards from time to time. Well the fun continues tomorrow, I am going to spend a couple hours over at Steve Doyle's to help him on the throat of his transfer yard. Last week, I roughed in a curved turnout to fit a unique area, Steve completed it after I left. Steve has been trying out different ideas to fit some other features he wants in the yard. We will see where his imagineering has gone and what needs to be done next. Well I need to go, things to do, I will check in another time. Enjoy your model railroading time. If you find yourself in the Twin Cities area here in Minnesota, stop by a PPSSW meeting. Ken ZIeska
