Applying Foam board

I wanted to work on some scenery first on the other two modules, but I realized that my track design left me short  in two ways from an operational standpoint - a very short yard lead, and no runaround. This module has the other half of the run around, part of which will extend the yard lead a fair amount.

I decided with this module to NOT delay months in putting down the foam board, and started the gluing process last night.

The bare module.

The best layed plans......

Sometimes, the best layed plans.....can go awry....

With the pink foam down, I placed the track template down, and lined it up with the entrance and projected exit points for this module (entrance points shown below).

The ponce wheel did a great job transferring the plan to the foam......

Are you

going to detail how you made the turnouts without the jig?  I'm curious to see your process for this. 

Dave

Its been one of those things

in the back of mind.  I use the Fast Tracks jig for my #6 turnouts and it has saved me money with the number I'm doing/have done, but its not worth buying a jig to do a handful of one type of turnout.  And it would be nice to do some different turnouts.  This is why I'm curious to see how you will build them without the jig.  I've seen the results of people building their turnouts without jigs, but I haven't really seen the step by step process that you are so good at presenting.  Curious if you use a rail roller tool from Fast Tracks or not as well.

I do....

I do use the rail roller; more of that later. I tried to Google some instructions on this, but came up empty - even Fast Tracks links were not working. Not a good sign! Success or fail, I'll share my experience, and hope for the best  - I'm hoping folks reading this feel they can step in with suggestions if things go all crazy like.

Before we get to the rail though, I need to get the roadbed work finished. And that means the rest of the ties down, weathered, and ballasted.

First up was the rest of the ties.

as I was happy with the alignment, I kept the turnouts in place (pinned, not glued) and aligned the cross ties to them.

Once dry, it was time to attack the turnouts themselves.

I decided to do just one at a time, and leave the other two in place with pins (again, to retain the alignment). I pulled out each turnout by itself, after marking the cork, and drilled the turnout hole and frog feeder.

white glue brushed on, and the turnout ties pinned back into place.

Rinse, repeat. Once that one was dry, it was time to pull up another. I use a couple of extra T-pins to indicate my drill spots.

I didn't bother taking pictures of the third turnout, as by now you probably get the idea. Finally though, all three were down and dry.

And than it was time to "weather" the ties with the usual drybushed coat of gray.

once this drys, it's time to drill some feeder holes, and put down the ballast, and than we can get put down some iron!

Tony Koester's article

Tony Koester wrote a good article "Build a turnout from scratch" on hand laying turnouts "pre-PCB" in I believe the December 1989 MRR. It was reprinted in the book "Trackwork and Lineside Detail". Doesnt help you unless you happen to have either one lying around..

Regards,

Chris

Iron

I don't have that article lying around, Chris, but I'll do some more digging. Thanks!

Well the ballast was almost dry enough, so it was time to work on the rail. First, I marked where the outside stock rail needed to have it's web cut.

once the web was cut, and the ends cleaned, I pulled out the Fast Tracks rail roller.  Here it is in mid roll, I like to work it into shape, checking it against the actual needed curvature.

Thank you for sharing - this

Thank you for sharing - this whole sequence has been very informative.  Your pictures and comments have answered a lot of questions I had about hand laying track. 

Thanks Jim

Thanks Jim, but I wouldn't look to this as a "how-to" for handlaying!

Instead, this will be more of a "@#$F how the hell do I fix that? " kind of process! 

Two more...

Two more rails went down today, putting me a bit ahead of schedule (if I can get a rail a day, I'm happy!)

I started with the very inside rail of this whole set, as I had a trimmed piece of c83 that pretty much fit.  Like the other, it was pinned in one end, and marks put down where the rail base needs to get cut for the points (two sets, as this stockrail will go through two turnouts).

When finished, it was nice and tight. I have to say that the twist ties with the pre-drilled holes are good, I seem to never think the spikes will hold it and glue is needed, yet once I get them in place, they seem nice and solid. I did find that my holes on a couple of these were clogged, and best opened by twisting a spike around, in a back and forth motion, until it worked itself in place.

Or maybe two

Maybe today was really two rails away...

First was this one - for the first 90% things were going great! 

so with that fixed, I was able to put it back down for good.

Last couple of rails

I had enough time to put in the last couple of rails.

So...now to do battle with the rest.

And in this corner....

And in this corner, weighing in at code 83, bare rail...."Ding, Ding!" 

Round one.

My plan is simple - to make a one piece frog that can be wired.

Started out just making a basic from in the jig.

I cut the other two parts of the frog, and flipped the whole thing upside down.  I aligned them, pinned them in place, and soldered the rail bases together.

But I hadn't pinned it well enough, and the original frog solder job slid apart.  So, back down, this time with enough pins to hold it securely.

Flipping it right side up, it looked good. But only at first. There is insufficient gap between the rails for wheels, among other things.

So I broke it all apart, and tried again - this time from the top; and dropped in a lot of solder into the gap.

But that failed as well.....Round one goes to the rail.  I quit work on it tonight to do a bit more research, and build up some more patience on my part.

Getting back on the horse

 With regards to your frog soldering, I've read of a method where the frog and wing rails are completely filled with solder and flangeways are cut in later with a hacksaw blade.

Cheers Steve

Hay! That's what I do...

Hay! That's what I do... (fill the frog flangeways with solder then 'mill' them out with a small piece of hacksaw blade)

Charlie

And that's probably the best way to do it

And that's probably the best way to do it Charlie. The only problem is, I can be a stubborn SOB sometimes.

So, back to the attack! 

My next approach was to use a small PC tie, my idea was to solder it up nice, than grind off 95% of the tie from below.

I trimmed off the ends of tie nice and flush

Next try...

So for the next try, I thought I'd do the opposite - solder some wires on top that would be removed in the end. The top wires would work to keep the frog in alignment while I solder wires on the bottom to fit between the ties, the bottom wires could provide both alignment and conductivity.

Here it is with the top temporary wires.

Flipping it upside down, I went ahead and soldered the bottom wires.

After the appropiate mourning period

After the appropriate mourning period, that included some more reading, I came across a trend in all the articles/posts/books on doing this. Building it in place.

Ah ha. Well, if you can't beat'em, join'em.

So I started with the frog, cut the guy to fit, and soldered the frog feeder wire in as well. There was some slight bending of rail needed before spiking, but with spikes in, it holds nice.

and than the other.

So I soldered up the throwbar to PC tie, and loe and behold,it didn't work. The test truck derails on the diverging route (it's ok on the other) in the points, I think the problem is I didn't bend the points enough before mounting them. As this is a curved turnout, I think the curve of the points needs to be exact, which mine isn't.

Of course that means removing the offending point and re-doing, but I think I'm on the right track. Pun, as bad as it is, intended.

.

.

Hats Off

Hats off to you, Scarpia. .Takes lots of moxy to do what you're doing here. You'll get it wqorking. Well done.

Roy

The dead zone, curves, and PC ties

Thanks guys.

Marc, I'm aware that the "wings" are dead. Once everything is in place, I'm going to go back and drop just a little hot solder in there to connect them to the frog (which is wired). 

I realize now how important the curved aspect is - I don't mind re-doing the point rails on this one, as it's a working model .  It was disappointing to have it not work the first try.

I didn't think of rail creep per the gaps, so that's good info. I wonder how much will be reduced by the fact that the feeder wires to the rail will limit their travel. Still, I may fill the gaps with plasticard just to be sure.

I do think the PC tie method is superior for many reasons over a more traditional method like this, for exactly the reasons you mention - electrical connectivity, and permanence.  That having been said, I am determined enough to try and make this work - if I simply cannot get this first one to work to my satisfaction, than I may begin pulling up ties on it and the other two and substitute in the copper.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and comments!

You were almost there

Scarp:

You were almost there with one of your attempts. Solder some rail scraps to the top of the frog point and wing rails while they're in the jig. Move them to the roadbed and spike them down completely.

Then as the last step, unsolder the rail scraps from the top of the rails and clean up the solder off the rail head - voila! You're done and the frog assembly didn't fall apart along the way.

Good to know

That's good to know Joe - except I've discovered that the Fast Tracks jig spacing is different than the Fast Tracks Twist Tie spacing.

There are pre-drilled spiking holes in the Twist Ties; if you build a frog set in the jig, the gap is significantly wider, and the rail base covers the pre-drilled holes. This can be overcome by drilling new holes, but I thought I should mention it.

Gotta love a challenge!