Mainlines Laid

B

Bob Collins

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Feb 1, 2001
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Council Bluffs, IA
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I am happy to report that all my mainline track is now laid:) I originally bought 50 three foot sections of flex track. I tried to be very careful in not wasting any of it and it was a good thing as I needed the last one to complete this part of the process. So, I have something in the neighborhood of 145 feet of mainline, not including 16 turnouts and three crossovers.

What is very interesting to me is when I hooked up the power to just one of the seven drops I have for the mainlines I was able to power a loco all of the way around the layout. It slows down in spots, but I obviously have track integrity all the way around and also down a spur.

Now to get started on the yards, of which there are three. Shall I tackle the easiest or the most difficult first:D

And the fun continues:) :) :)

Bob
 
CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)


Where's the party going to be ????????????


:cool:


It IS a Wonderfull Life ....

...especially when the track work is done !!!!!!!!!!!!

;)


- George Bailey
 
Hi George;

It is really great to see how well the train transitions the curves, which was my primary concern, although they looked fine. I also am convinced that I will have no problems when I feel ready for a 4-8-4 Northern sometime in the future. My goal would to eventually be able to afford a Challenger. I'm surprised that probably the roughest place on the layout is when a train crosses a crossover. It sounds almost like a guy ought to consider filing something down, although I'm not at all sure what that would be at this point.

I also have to work some more on my problem spot where I tried some gorilla glue that bubbled up and I have already had to do some work on with my Exacto knife. Still rough, but no derailments anywhere. I even tried something I read on here and pushed a couple of cars backwards and no problems.

Other than that all I need to do it get sufficient power to all area and I think I.m finished for now withat that part. As I said earlier, now it is the yards. :)

I think my biggest challenge is still in front of me. I have a great deal of difficuly trying to picture the scenery that would be right for the layout. A couple of tunnels covered with grassy, treed hills, yes, freight yard, passenger station and actually two other areas away from the main lines. One near the roundhouse which ought to be reasonably easy to piece together. The other could be almost anything, coal mine, grain elevator (my first choice right now?) or most anything else that would fit!!

Enough. The party is at the end of the spur;)

Bob
 
Congrats

Congratulations Bob, on acheiving a great milestone. Try the yard where you have made up your mind what you want there first. With reagrds to the scenery, just make it up as you go. Do you have elevated track anywhere? I'm sure you have read all the posts in here about scenery, tunnells, ballast etc. Do you have any pics of the layout?
 
Hi Woodie and Bill;

I tried posting a message this morning in response to both of your messages and the machine apparently ate it :D

Woodie, I would venture a guess that all but about 10% of my track is elevated. I have everything at least 3" off the board and up to 4" where I have bridges. I have one area where the double mainline goes down to the board (about 6 feet) and then mback up again.

I have a pretty good idea about two of my yards so will start with what I view as the easiest and use that for practice on the harder one. I still haven't figured out how I am going to build my large turntable. It is way beyond me :) I have a good friend in my Rotary Club who is a professor of mechanical engineerring here at the University. I'm thinking about asking him to assign construct of the tiurntable to one of his students :rolleyes: I also am trying to track down the name and address of the company that apparently make a good indexing system for a turntable. That has been recommended to me as a must for my particular plan where the turntable (134') is one of the centerpieces of the layout.

I have a good idea of how I want to handle the scenery where I have two tunnels. I think youare absolutely right Woodie, I will mostly play it as I go along, because I know I am going to change my mind a hundred times as it progresses.

I will work on getting some pictures taken of the layout so I can share.

Bill;
Yes I really did get almost 145 feet of usable track out of the original 150 feet. I have a very small pile of little short pieces left!

I have to go buy my flex track so I can get started on my yards. Will do some of the basic wiring until I need to make a trip to St. Louis to get the track.

Bob
 
Indexing

Bob - I remember somewhere that a company named Dalee (sp?) make a good indexing system for turntables, around $70 as I recall, also that its available through Bowser. - Bill K
 
Thanks Bill for the info on the indexing machine. A price I had heard quoted was more in the range of $400 and I was really dragging my feet about putting that much money into one.

I'll check out the Bowser website and see what I can discover.

Peace

Bob
 
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