Richlawn RR V2 - Benchwork swing gate track installation part A

Here's the swing gate area with the piece of track formed and temporarly in place.

Next I add some supports and test the track by running a loco with a car - no problems were found.

Here I'm cutting away some foam to make space for the upright wood track support.

With the area ready I will need to fabricate the support.

A scrap piece of 2" x 3" will work fine for the support.  Here I level it at the proper height.  Since I won't be using cork roadbed I set the height at the bottom of the ties.

With the track in place I mark the location of the roadbed on the support.

Using my hand saw I cut the angle for the roadbed and then using a sanding disk on my drill to finish the bevel.

Here's the support piece for the fixed benchwork in place.

I'm using the Gapmaster PC ties for the area that will bridge the gap between the fixed benchwork and the swinging gate.  I put the track in place and mark where to install the Gapmasters (2) of them.

I followed the included instructions to install the Gapmasters.  I first removed the ties for the area where they were to be installed, then sanded the underside of the rails, then put flux on the underside of the rails, and finally used the supplied solder to solder the rails to the Gapmasters.

Next it's on to making the wood track support on the swing gate portion.  I used a scrap piece of 2" x 6" and mark the locations of the track profile.  Then it's off to the radial arm saw for some work.  The 2" x 6" is about 1/16" too thick so I use the saw to plane it down.

Here's the support after a little saw work and sanding once it's been installed on top of the swing gate.

Here's the final shot on this end of the gate.  This process took me about 3 hours and I don't feel like working on the other end.......that's for next time.  Once the other joint is finished I'll add roadbed between the two supports on the swing gate and I'll have continuous running!

Looks good Rick

You are now more than 1/2 way done with this aspect of the layout. Great progress. I am still working on the new house purchase to hold the layout and provide living space underneath. In Texas we generally do not do basements, so layouts go in attics or in out buildings. They also need air conditioning and heat.

In modeling world I spent the weekend organizing my coal cars and getting some weighted loads ready for my fleet of hoppers. I have found that I can acquire a few more cars, 13 black data triples from accurail and I will have a car for all of my loads, 3 and 4 bay cars. I have also discovered I can acquire 3 more Athearn 2 bay hoppers and then I will have cars for all of those loads. Next I will need to see how many accurail loads I had ordered for the USRA twins and how many more to go. It's been a very long time since I placed the order so I do not recall how many I ordered at this time.

Accurail makes some very nice coal loads and sells them in 48 and 12 packs for very reasonable prices. My hobby shop discounts them and it ends up being under $1.00 a load when purchased in the 48 pack. Now it will be time to go over all the cars, some were purchase at train shows and e bay among others and tune them and get them ready for the next open house and a video for the club website.

Our clubs web address is http://www.etmrc.org/copy and paste in your browser or enter east texas model railroad club in your search engine and give us a look the first link will be our old site once you click on it, it will redirect you faster than you can jack robinson.

Rob in east texas

Thanks Rob in Texas for your