This is a continuation to my comments in the “greatest goof” posting. When adding a PECO curved turnout, I took the “good enough” approach. NEVER take this approach when it comes to you trackwork. When I installed the turnout, I cut the insulating gaps too close to the turnout. The diverging track rails on the turnout itself eventually loosened. To fix this, I knew I had to replace the turnout with a new one AND the flextrack attached to it. When replacing track I, ALWAYS completely clean the old surface. This meant removing ALL signs of old ballast and glue. When you feel nothing but the roadbed surface (I use cork).
Your basic advice – that the much praised “good enough” standard should not be utilized for track work – is sound. One problem I see repeatedly is guys cheating coming out of a turnout where they introduce a kink into the curve because, yeah, they line up the two rails on the flex track to match the end of the turnout – but the ends of the rails are not exactly parallel!
I would only add that the guy who first articulated the "good enough’ standard, Allen McClelland, is so darn good that what he regards as “good enough” is a very high standard indeed, mayby shy of contest level modeling but not by much. He wasn’t advocating for sloppy modeling or workmanship in the least, but I think the phrase good enough has become somewhat debased.
Isn’t good enough a rather subjective term anyway? ie: Benchwork that can support my weight for my layout is good enough but would be overkill if I were building a shelf layout. The playing field levels off with trackwork where only perfect seems to be good enough on all layouts. Ok, the kids’ Thomas set is actually designed to be imperfect but that’s another story. Many modelers furnish the interiors of buildings but buildings toward the back of the layout sometimes don’t even have details in the back, or no back at all. What is good enough for the background just won’t pass muster in the foreground. Wiring, it’s either right or wrong. Wrong can sometimes be dangerous.
Speaking of goofs and wiring…my Plywood Atlantic layout’s wiring wasn’t tightly secured to the underside of the table. A few storage boxes fit under without problem, BUT, the cats found the boxes a nice place to relax and the wires just above became yet another cat toy. A not thrown turnout and passing siding collision later the problem was found.[B)] The goof, not catproofing the layout, will not be repeated.
