Well, the benchwork is all done. Done, that is, unless I decide the Northport terminal on the near end of the photo has too many problems and needs to be completely rebuilt. That section of the layout was given to me by an experienced modeler. It was built years ago by a pack of boy scouts, and has issues with flatness of the table top, track gauge inconsistency, track joints, wiring, small radii, etc. I’m going to connect it up and see what I can do with it before I condemn it completely.
The far corner of the layout is of my design and build using Atlas Customline turnouts and code 83 flex track. The Northport area is mostly code 100 track and Shinohara turnouts. They are power-routing, powered-frog, and the track section between pairs of turnouts is gapped near the middle of each effected section. I intend to make 3 connections to it: two for an entrance with a parallel passing siding, and a third which will make the Northport circle into a reversing loop. For that I guess I will need a reversing unit (I’m using DCC, but no sound engines so far) or a DPDT switch. I’ll start with the switch.
Thanks for the info on the transition joiners - I actually already have some. Tonight I laid some flextrack between the new Pheonix-Utopia Yard in the background and the Northport Terminal in the front. It’s not the permanent connection, but it let me run the first train back and forth! [:)]
My first track challenge was to disconnect a code 70 flex section from a code 83 Shinohara turnout and replace it with a short code 83 section, insulating joiners, and then code 83 flex to the new layout. The turnouts are power-routing, hence the insulators. The turnout had been trimmed, and I did the best I could to slide rail-joiners onto the end without removing a tie. It had been soldered onto the code 70 flex. In the end, I ended up with a good joint. That end will probably be permanent. All-in-all, not too bad.
I shorted the system a few times. This layout is tricky to operate, with gaps centered between turnouts instead of right next to them. I may end up re-doing some of the gaps.
