[#oops]
Let’s just say, for a story, that Hurricane Mike struck my railroad creating a road bed wash out at a major curve, and derailments were beginninng to occur. When the engineering department made a survey, it was decided that the entire section needed replacing.
Work began three days ago. The track was literally ripped up followed by the roadbed which had to be scrapped with a spatula which created a ditch like affect, with the ballast piled up on the sides. A sanding block was used to take the roughness down to the blue foam bed. Once that was accomplished the ditch was brushed clean and the bottom was now nice and smooth.
Of course I needed new sub-roadbeding, but I did not have any so what to do? It was off to Lowes. Walking up and down the ailes I came across rolls of blue foam insulation, 6 inches wide and the strip was 1/4 inches thick, it was cheap, a big roll for only a couple of bucks. I then realized I could cut these in 2-3 inch wide- long strips and use it as the sub-roadbed. I laid a bead of white caulking down the entire length of the ditch and placed the thin blue foam on top. Smoothing it out, making sure there were no dips, lumps or bumps. I now had a good roadbed wide and thick enough for the track and ballast, I was even able to raise the outside of the strip of foam, creating a bank in the curve. I painted the blue foam granite grey to match my ballast. As the paint dried I worked on the track, filing the ends of rails, cleaning the track and making good solder joints with smooth transition from track to track. The track was then laid on the new roadbed and rail joiners joined the end of the rail to the main line, again the joints soldered. The ballast was applied neatly using Cody Grivno’s technique than sprayed with alcohol and attached with a white glue solution. Feeder wires were soldered to the rails then attached to the the buswire under the table, before ballasting.
After the tracks were cleane