Back to work!

The track gang has been at work again!

Trains leaving the platform would have to negotiate a tight S-turn (to the right, behind the pail of spackle) that's been torn up in favor of re-routing the exit track to the left around a much more train-friendly thirty-six inch curve.

To lay track along the broader curve, the gang filled the gaps between the old roadbeds with plenty of spackle. When it's try, the new track will be laid around the broader curve to meet up with the road bed in the foreground, about two inches from the edge of the table top.

Laying the last length of track in the terminal yard. Books hold the track flat to the cork roadbed while the glue dries.

It works better if you use books about railroads.

View from the crossing tower

A look down the yard throat into the terminal yard. A trio of number six switches have been installed to replace the number four scissors switch that impeded traffic into the yard before. A single track leaves the yard where once there was a double track.

And the track gang was strongly encouraged by the chief engineer to clean up all the crap that had collected in the yard, after he promised to put a fifty-dollar tab on the bar at the Buffalo Nickel Tavern in exchange for a job well done.

I was hoping that a five-pack of Blue Point switch machines would arrive Saturday so I could install them before the weekend was out but, as it happens, UPS doesn't deliver on Saturdays or Sundays, so no luck there. Not wanting to wait any longer I glued the switches down and a length of track leading away from the throat through a tight, twenty-four inch curve.

A new way out

The track gang's been at it again. After a long winter spent mostly in the dark, smoke-filled back rooms at the Lost Piranha Tavern, they managed to rouse their lazy butts from their bench seats and get some work done reopening the yard throat.

These #6 switches will make it possible for all the engines of the Lost Continent Railway to come and go, from the big steamers bringing in a big drag from a cross-country run, to the short yard goats, spotting passenger cars along the platforms. That's the dream, anyway.

The longest locos have had no trouble at all to date crawling through these Code 83 Atlas Super turnouts, when last we ran trains along the road. This time around I'm taking as long as necessary to prepare the roadbed, cutting holes for the switch machines, and fixing the track to the bench.

Plans to hand-lay track along this stretch were set aside in favor of getting the road up and running. Perhaps next summer we'll give the PCB method a try, but I'm hoping to have big steam pulling a string of streamliners around the bend before April's over.

Scissors beats steam engine

No matter how slowly and carefully I try, I can't get the big steamer through the crossover at the yard throat. The geometry's too tight for the steamer's long, rigid wheelbase.

This is serious.

I haunted e-bay for weeks to get that crossover at a good price, but if the line's flagship steamer can't get through it, it has to go, no matter how much it hurts to tear it up.

Scissors beats steam engine

... the track gang made short work of the offending crossover once the order was given.

Scissors beats steam engine

I used flex track to help plot the geometry for the planned crossover.

Scissors beats steam engine

To lay the track for the new crossover, I'm going to try soldering rails to PCB ties.

I have no local source for these ties, and I wanted to get started right away, so I drove down to Radio Shack and found they had 4x5 sheets of undrilled PCB, so I took one home and cut it up with a hand saw.

This is a lot more trouble than it's worth, believe me, and the cost is about the same. I got thirty-one ties for my five-dollar investment. Fastrax will sell me one-hundred ties for eighteen bucks and save me the trouble of cutting them up. The won't be this long, but now that I've got all the long ones I need, I don't care.

The End's In Sight

The track gang has put in a good day laying rail in the terminal yard, and the gang's boss, Dominic, has hauled them all away in the back of the company flatbed for a round of drinks at The Thirsty Camel to show his appreciation for their hard work.

A rainy day, combined with a recent payday, gave me the time and resources to stay in the basement and lay roadbed in the terminal yard.

I'm spreading a bead of an inexpensive acrylic caulk that works well to glue down the roadbed. It starts out white but dries clear, an improvement over the brownish caulk I was using before.

After the roadbed was laid, I spread spackle between the cork to fill in the yard. I'd highly recommend it over laying a wide sheet of cork. The spackle's easy to spread, fills in completely and is easily repairable.

Spotting cars

The track gangs have finished laying two more switches in the terminal yard of the grand central station yet to be named.

As a test of their proficiency, the chief engineer has spent the afternoon spotting a few spare cars on the spurs. He declared the ride through the switches to be so smooth that the first round of drinks at the Thirsty Camel are on him.

His announcement was met with three cheers, and the track gang carried him off on their shoulders, leaving these cars littering the yards.

More of the track gang's handiwork; these three spurs will serve the commissary yards at Hollow Leg. There's a nasty kink in the outside curve at the far left that the chief engineer hasn't found yet, and Dominic Fraboni, boss of the track gang, aims to keep him ignorant of it.

Compare this photo with a shot of the same ground back in December. The work is coming along slowly, but it's coming along just the same.

Gone Round The Bend

The chief engineer takes a two-car special for a spin around a newly-completed stretch of track along the main line up to the terminal throat. The crossover switches haven't been wired for operation yet, so he backs the special through the s-turn and stops for the photographer.

Payday! And the chief engineer had some money left over for track and roadbed, so tracklaying into the terminal yard continued this weekend with the inbound main track and two spurs graded past the switches.

Here, the track laying gang uses a row of books to hold a switch in place while the glue dries.

Bringing the cars in

By Sunday night the grade leading through the terminal throat, and to the switches along the south side of the terminal yard, had been leveled and made ready for track.












"There's no frigate like a book to take us lands away ..." A row of heavy, hard-backed books holds track in place as the glue dries. Standing them up allows air to circulate and the glue to set more quickly.











The track gangs have finished laying the switches into the southern terminal yard and a pair of cars, one standard diner and a heavyweight baggage, are used to find the hairy spots through the crossover.

Tracking progress

The LoCo track gangs have been hard at work through the weekend preparing the grade for these switches that will bring traffic in to the road's Central Terminal.

With the road bed laid and the right of way readied, only the track is needed. Unfortunately the chief engineer has run up against a shortage, so the track gangs may be shifted to routine maintenance on another stretch of the line.




Using the T.L.A.R. method to line up switches.

(That Looks About Right)

May I See Your Pass?

Trouble on the LoCo RR yesterday when the chief engineer's private car tried to squeak past a two-car limited waiting on the other track.

It seems the track gang wasn't paying close enough attention to the specs when they surveyed this portion of of the road and, as a result, laid the two tracks a tad bit close to one another. There is every reason to believe that alcohol might have been involved.

A board convened to look into the matter, but in the meantime the corner of the baggage car will have to be carefully pried away from the chief engineer's car, which in turn will spend the weekend in the body & paint shop at nearby Dogwater Flowage. The chief engineer is anything but happy as he and some of the boys were going to watch the game on the big flat-screen he recently installed in the car's spacious parlor.

He's a teensy bit irked about the track geometry, too, and has already begun plans to tear up this corner and tighten the bend just enough to open up the clearance between cars. The stretch of track should be open again by Monday morning.

On the road again

I finally bagged a couple of #5 switches in an e-bay auction. They're a lot harder to find that I would have thought. Lots of people post #4's and #6's but hardly ever a #5. For all the time I've put into waiting for one, I probably would've come out ahead just buying it new.

The #5 came in the mail last week, so this is the first weekend I've had a whole afternoon to myself to plot the geometries needed to make the turnoff into the commissary yards in the foreground.

I carefully pinned down the cork roadbed to use as a guide, traced it with a china marker, then spread caulk adhesive in the outlines with a putty knife. The caulk has a high enough tack to hold the cork in place without making me pin it again.

Besides laying out the commissary yards I ran the other end of the roadbed a little further toward the future site of the terminal.

Laying Track on the LoCo

I still use carpenter's glue to fix the tracks to the roadbed ...

... and utilize the most high-tech methods at my disposal to spread it evenly, ensuring a high tack and consistent adhesion.

Track fixed to the roadbed and pinned into 24" S-curves, the approach to the yard throat and the station.

Back On Track

After a lapse of about nine weeks, for no reason other than I was pursuing other interests, I found myself with a few hours alone in the basement and satisfied the urge, which came out of nowhere, to lay down some cork roadbed and, just maybe, if I have enough time today, some track, too, although I don't want to get ahead of myself at this point.

I've always used white glue as an adhesive to fasted the roadbed before this but today I used an adhesive caulk, mostly because it was handy but also because I'd read that it was better than white glue. And it is, inasmuch as it's got enough tack to hold the cork in place that I don't have to pin it, although I did pin the ends to keep them bent around the curves.

Given the slip, part 2

Taking a deep breath, I fluxed the first two or three ties, held the outside rail down with a probe and soldered it in place. A quick poke with the probe confirmed it was held fast, and I could see it wasn't a cold joint. Flush with success, I pressed on. Flux, solder repeat.

I filed useless angles into the ends of three rails freehand before I got the idea to cut a jig to hold the rail an the correct angle. All I have to do is concentrate on holding the file straight.

My first frog.


The soldering work is more than a little messy because I've never seen this done before and am working out the kinks as I go.

For instance, I knew that the two kinds of solder I had in my tool box melted at different temperatures, but I had no idea why that was significant until I tried to carry a bead of solder to the rail while the iron was too hot for it. The low-temp solder falls off a hot iron; the high-temp solder sticks to it like cookie crumbs to a toddler's face. And I figured that out how? I grabbed the high-temp solder by mistake.