Now that the dust has settled after the London exhibition last month, I am now looking to realign some of the track and move several of the turnouts to improve operation at the West end of the layout.
I also intend to reinstall the cassette fiddle yard behind the backscene to create a junction going north, halfway between the East and West yards.
The modification will involve ripping up most of the trackage in the photos below, other than the siding with the freight cars on.
Looking West
Looking East
I have already purchased the new turnouts and flexi track, although the speed and cost of this little enterprise depends on me lifting most of the existing turnouts in one piece.
Great stuff. The videos were awsome!! The only thing that I can see that you MIGHT want to change wold be the crossover in the next to the last photo. The one that the NYC passenger train is crossing between the road and tower in the video. The rest of the track looks really good. I really like the way the loco sways going through the turnouts and trackwork. That looks real!!
Yer killin me bro. The track you’re proposing to rip out is miles better than any of my existing trackwork. I applaud your standards, but here in the Estatas Unidos, we have lots more frost and ice than you do in England. Hence the road bed is often less than perfect, especially around Chicago near the great lakes where the wind whistles right through your very body in the winter. It is often scary watching the rolling stock in the museum yards here in Danbury lurching back and forth on our less than perfect trackage with subsided ties and loose spikes. I doubt the active lines are as bad, but I’ve seen a lot of less than perfect track out this way in daily use. Just a thought.
On the video, it may be unintentional, but the reflections off the windows of the buildings really add to the realism of the scene. My [2c]. Cheers, J.R.
The destruction continued for a while longer - the heavy engineering plant and the scrap yard bore the brunt of the heavy-duty damage and a number of trees were felled and several buildings were demolished.
That about wraps up the demolition for now. Now to start on some reconstruction.
After sanding the cork bed reasonably flat, I started cutting the track to suit and laying it loosely in position. This allows me to find any uneven or troublesome spots before actually fixing the trackwork down.
It also allows me to mark the positions where I need to drill holes for the turnout motors and where to drill the holes for the brass screws at the board joints.
Peco code 75, Steve. I fancy experimenting with some of Peco’s code 83 flexi track and swapping over the code 83 ties with the code 75 ones to get code 75 track with US outline ties, but I’m not sure yet if the rail profile of the code 75 will be too sloppy in the code 83 ties.
Work has been progressing steadily and I now have some track down. Any under-track magnets have been fitted and brass screws have been installed where the track crosses a sectional board joint.
The rail is soldered to these screws prior to cutting the rails with a Dremel cutting disc. This, added to the brass locating dowels in the board ends, ensures perfect track alignment, each time the layout is erected.
The trackwork is almost complete now, except for the foundation trestles in the fuel depot and a couple of magnets that still need burying. The next step is to solder and cut the rails at the board joints, fix the bus connecting wires to the rails and reattach the turnout motors.
This is turning into an excellent tutorial. I have been struggling with the rail alignment on my swing bridge and your idea of using brass screws is outstanding. Do you do anything special to ensure the screws are all at the same height or do you just check visually before soldering the rail to the screws ? Keep up the great work and thank you for sharing. J.R.
