Progress over Christmas break

I had a few days off, and was able to (finally) push ahead with laying track up the Ophir high- and low-lines. That section is the last remaining portion of the mainline to lay, and it's now about half completed. Part of the delay was a lack of funds when I ran out of track, but I finally gathered up and sold a bunch of other stuff on eBay, and freed up some funds to continue.

I ran into another problem though, as I planned the spur at Ophir. The spur comes off the curving mainline just after the high bridge 45-A. I was planning to use a Peco code 75 turnout (as all my other turnouts are), but their only curved turnout has a very side outside radius (60" !!), and I just couldn't make that fit. So, plans now are to use a Walthers #7.5 curved turnout, which has radii of 32" and 28", and should be much more workable. It is code 83, so I'll have to figure out a conversion between the code 75 and 83 at this point; hopefully it won't be too bad.

For the code 75 to 55 transition (I want to use code 55 for sidings and spurs), I discovered that Micro Engineering actually makes a code 70 to 55 transition rail joiner, and I picked up a few. I haven't used them yet, but it looks like they'll work well.

Finally, a friend from an operating group south of Chicago dropped by for a visit, and we chatted about the operational possibilities fo the layout, once the trackwork is further along. I planned for operation from the beginning, but it was great to have someone else look at the layout and confirm that group operations would probably work well. I'm looking forward to that day!

Cork, and that wonderful code 55 rail

I finished laying the last of the cork roadbed on the mainline around Ophir. The only cork roadbed still needed now is Durango and Telluride... and I'm out of cork again! So, I'll continue when I get another order placed.

In other news, I finally decided to attempt - or at least explore - what it would take to join code 55 rail to my existing Peco code 75. I found that the code 75 rail joiners will work for horizontal alignment, but of course the code 55 rail height will be too low. I'm trying now to figure out how to hold the two rails in alignment until I can solder them.

I don't have a solution yet, but have been thinking of using a cutoff tool to remove the upper part of a rail joiner in the middle (so that portion has only the metal plate on the bottom). Then, I'd insert both size rails, and bend the joiner at the point where it's just the bottom part - should bend easily right? Get the height right w/some fiddling and bending, then solder it. Perhaps I'll be able to try that in a few days.

Once more, with feeling

There's hasn't been much progress on the layout over the last couple of weeks, but what time I had was focused on (again) getting the movable section of benchwork near Ophir to correctly latch.

A short recap - I had created this section to pull out, using drawer slides. The first attempt, when I laid the roadbed, shows that the drawer slides were somewhat sloppy, and also that if you pulled too far, the entire module dropped out (on my wife's foot - thus the requirement to redesign it!).

So - I replaced the slides with heavy-duty extending slides rated for 100 lbs; the module now slides out much further, and won't fall out w/o releasing latches on each slide. Plus, the module pulls out so far that it should (usually) not be necessary to remove the module.

So last week I laid track over one section, cut the rails, and realized a very tight locking mechanism was needed. I installed a couple of sliding dead-bolt type thingies (that's a technical term, you know - thingies). But, even with those there was a little bit of play that caused track alignment problems.

Finally, just last night, I reworked the benchwork and found a way to attach a suitcase latch (the kind where a tab flips up, then a ring of metal loops around a catch, then the tab is pushed back down). With a bit of fiddling, I now have this attached such that the latch actually squeezes the benchwork slightly, and makes a very solid lock, with no movement at all.

Hopefully, this will solve the problem. It's winter here, and the humidity has been dropping and benchwork wood is starting its seasonally drying and shrinking. During the spring, this process reverses, and it's then I'll find out if the wood changes enough to affect this or not.

Now let's see - with that task finished, what should I tackle next?

It's been crazy busy again, but this weekend I had some time for the layout again, and have been working on the 3-track staging yard at Durango (it actually sits under what will someday - hopefully - be the Ophir loop).

Making tracks at Vance

It was a pretty busy weekend, but I did find time on Sunday for a bit of layout work. I was able to lay both of the 3-way turnouts at Vance Jct, and laid the main from the laundry-room exit tunnel all the way past bridge 44-A on the Ophir low line.

There' s a pull-out section of benchwork just past 44-A, and I laid the first bit of track onto the pull-out and make the rail cuts. No testing yet, so I'm not sure how good it is yet. I've always been nervous about the junction of the rails across those joints, but so far it has seemed easy enough.

My kids were able to back the test train into Vance for the first time Sunday night, and that was a pretty nice milestone to meet.