Hi Bob and all -- Sounds like almost any project I ever encountered – what looks like a a quick fix turns into a huge project, many times requiring multiple trips to whatever supply house for materials. Good luck on the test run!
I have been busy with other things than the layout until this week. This week saw some real progress – the narrow gauge town of Coal Creek, salvaged from the old layout, sat virtually untouched and stacked in pieces for the last 8 years. This spring I put bench framing in to support it properly and add to it. This week I finally got busy and started rehabbing the track and replacing sections that had been cut out at the table joints when the old layout was torn down. Like Bob’s story, this required re-matching the surface of the sections before new ties and rail could be put in. If he is like me, he kept the vacuum pretty busy with the dust from the process... Anyhow, I hope to have the area fully ready to use by the end of next week. We’ll see.... In the meantime, I had a brain shower that I could expand the layout in the future by adding a peninsula into the middle of the room once I no longer need the space for my work table. This peninsula will hold another mine for the narrow gauge to service. So, in preparation for the future, I built a new turnout to access the peninsula. In the process, I extended a standard gauge tunnel and scrapped plans for a narrow gauge trestle/bridge over the standard gauge mains. In the long run, I think the scenery will be more convincing as a result. I hope everyone had a fun 4th and is keeping cool! Bill Winans ------------------------------ I thought I would give some of you some news from my layout. When I had my open house back in June. I had some trouble with a #6 turnout that wasn't doing too well. I thought, well, maybe it's time to do either some major repair work or perhaps replace it for a #8. I got brave and went for the latter. Several years ago I had purchased from 'somebody' a bunch of Earl Elishman's (sp) turnouts in the 126 size. I had been selling some of them, but thought I had kept a pair. It turns out that I only had a RH and not the LH that I needed. So I quickly made a backward tracing and started to build a LH #8. Since the replacement was in a finished sceniced area inward of the layout's edge, I knew things would be perhaps a bit difficult--boy was I right. I started by removing structures, trees and anything else that I could from the area. I built the turnout on my workbench laid on a old Tru-Scale wooden trackbed, that I purchased from Roger Nulton at last year's auction. I glued down ties and laid the rail, drilled holes for wires and made it pretty much a 'drop-in' for the new location. So far so good! Next I had to remove the old turnout that turned out to be one that I purchased from Branchline Models back when I was in high school. It had been relaid a couple of times so it was time for it to go. I then had to remove Homesote material to match the depth of the Tru-scale roadbed that was about 5/16". I did that by cutting diagonally along the roadbed and then using a paint scraper to gradually remove material layers. After several hours each of two nights I reached the proper depth evenly along the route, so now the new turnout would pretty much drop into the proper place. Because I didn't like re-routing the siding trackage, I put all the new length to the single track end. I determined that there was just enough space and clearance around the area under the layout. I then drilled new holes for wires and the rod to activiate the throw rod. Most of my twin coil machines are mounted via Rix Racks. To me they have always been a bit difficult to install and adjust but seem to be better than some other methods I've seen. Well, it turns out that I was about 1/2" off in the amount of room I would need to mount this assembly. So I got creative and mounted the switch machine on the rack in a backwards position thus saving that 1/2" I really needed. Unfortunately, the internal flip-flop switch that controls the polarity fell apart so I had to dismount and reassemble the components. I also chose to replace some of the wiring to the motor and change the way the assembly was mounted to the underside of the roadbed. So last night, after many hours of work under the layout, stretching over the layout and workbench time, we finally got things working perfectly. The coils work correctly and tonite I plan on hooking up the track wires--so fingers crossed as I open up my mainline again for traffic. I'm hoping to not need any tweaking! Then on to other projects! Bob Werre PhotoTraxx
