Just thought I would start a thread that will hopefully document some of the progress of building my little RR empire - the Roaring Fork & Western RR. First up here is the final plan complete with yard extension due to successful negotiations with the lounge room land holder: http://www.railimages.com/albums/brucenordstrand/aao.jpg The plan was redesigned by Coaltrain and for that I am indebted to him until I am about 400 years old! Set in the mid/late 1940's to early 1950's, the Roaring Fork and Western RR will interchange with 2 other RR's, namely the L&N and the CRR. The L&N owns the mainline and has interchange tracks on both sides of the main as it comes into the yard space. The L&N will run mainline freights that will deliver/pickup general freight for interchange and will also run mainline coal trains that will pick up and deliver hoppers to the yard. Some passenger runs will also be made to drop off peeps heading up the branch. Mostly early diesels will be used for the mainline runs, namely GP-7's, F-7's and/or RS-3's plus a USRA Mikado (a Mantua Mikado with Cary Loco works boiler and detail parts) all in L&N colors. The CRR interchanges on the branchline and is represented by 2 tracks that are hidden under the major coal mine. Cars will be dropped/delivered here and dragged or pushed back into the mountain. No CRR motive power will be used. The yard has service facilities for steam locos only and the RF&W has an all steam roster - 2 Shays (2 truck and 3 truck), a MDC Old Time 2-8-0, a Mantua Atlantic (passenger service) and a Mantua 0-6-0 switcher. More steam may be purchased in the future. All these steamers (aside from the switcher) are unbuilt kits at the moment and all the Mantua locos will be repowered with Sagami motors for DCC compatibility. With all the coal businesses on the RR, we have estimated that around 80 2-bay 35' hoppers will be required. So far I have 17 (16 Athearn and 1 Accurail). I plan to pretty much scratchbuild all structures for the RR, mainly to get the feel for the period I am modeling plus to gain as much experience as I can in scratchbuilding. The benchwork will not be all erected at once, so I have started with the yard area plus a little of the adjoining area. This will allow me to basically complete the yard and all it's associated details - enough to keep me busy for a while. All benchwork is L-girder construction with 18mm plywood sub-roadbed topped with Canite (Aussie Homosote equivilent) and cork roadbed. For the yard, branchline and sidings, I will use 3mm cork with 4.5mm cork on the mainline. This should give me the visual separation of the different trackage. The plywood was bought second hand and the Canite was supplied by the Sydney N Scale club thanks to Jason (and really appreciated). Cork has been bought in sheets and will be cut to the required widths when needed. All track, including turnouts will be handlaid with code 55 rail in the yard and branchline and code 70 for what little mainline is visible. Atlas code 83 flex track will be used in the hidden staging yards below the visible portion. Control will be via EasyDCC for simplicity. Hopefully pics of the start will be available soon, I just have to borrow a digital camera first Cheers
That is some good design work. Should keep you busy. Both building, then operating. Please post up your progress photos, as the project moves along! Boxcab E50
That is an ambitious design. Should keep you out of mischeif for a while! Good to see you are modelling an era similar to mine. I look forward to pictures and reports of progress.
Yup, all except the staging which is underneath this lot. It's not that big really - the donut section is 8' x 12' and the yard is about 9' long x 22" wide.
Thank guys With my limited budget it is going to take a while but it will also give me an out - and believe me I need one of those at this time . Even if we move (we rent), all I have to do is get a place with the required space, probably a garage this time. The benchwork has been built with removable bits to aid in moving. I should be able to get some pics over the weekend. Cheers
Looks great Bruce, I love the trackplan and I'm really looking forward to follow your progress. So which method did you finally decide for regarding tracks? hot-glue, barge cement or nails ? Jesper
Thanks Jesper I am leaning towards hot glue actually. Spikes are a close second but I am having trouble seeing them and how I would go on the higher areas is an unknown. I tried the contact cement/MEK method which didn't work out too well and it almost poisoned me with the fumes. I bought myself a new hot glue gun so that will be first choice at this point. Cheers
ok, we want pictures, we want pictures, we want pictures yes, once you get comfortable with the hot glue method, please post some how to pictures, because when I tried it, I ended up with glue anywhere else but on the track. Jesper
Jesper [/qb][/QUOTE] I bought myself a new hot glue gun so that will be first choice at this point. Cheers [/QB][/QUOTE] Attaboy Bruce! Just don't try and run a bead the entire length of the rail until you get a good feel for it. One thing about hot glue .. if you get a little blob of it hanging under the rail between ties .. you can just melt it away by heating the rail above it. It does not take much glue to do the job.
Hmmmm, I guess what is needed is pictures....now how did I get that idea? I am far from good with hot glue but I am going to modify the gun a little to get a better flow. Thanks for the tip Bill, so far I have not managed to get a whole length but I have got places where a nice thin layer resulted. With a little more practice you never know what might happen Cheers
Bill, I have been practicing today getting the glue layed down. I have modified my gun so getting a thin layer is easier and made a little wooden slot jig to put the rail into while I spread glue. When I glue the rail down I am getting small amounts of glue squidging out the side of the rail like little tie plates. Is that what you get or have I still go too much glue on the rail? For reference I have it to the point that it is hard to see glue on the bottom of the rail - i.e. no lumps. Jesper, when I get a bit better I'll take some pics and add a bit of text how I am doing the gluing. Cheers [ 05. November 2004, 01:35: Message edited by: racedirector ]
Bruce, Yes, I had that same problem at first. If the squids are not too large, they should melt out of sight when you heat the rail onto the ties. Speed of moving the gun or rail past the gun is what does the trick. I'd go a little faster and see what happens. You can always take the rail through again.
Aha, so you have no visible glue once your done. Ok, something to strive for. I have about an hour left before the kids need picking up so I'll have another go. Cheers
Not much happening at the moment. I keep forgetting to grab my Dad's camera when I am there, but will try and remember tomorrow. So far I have been cutting up my plywood (which is cool 'cause I get to play with all my power tools including my mitre saw, circular saw, planer and belt sander ). Silly me forgot to put the backdrop up on the section I am building so I will have to disconnect the peninsula piece and build & attach the backdrop. Bought myself a sheet of 3.6mm Luane plywood for the purpose. When it goes up it will just be painted a light blue (got some spare from painting the chicken coop) and with my wife being the artistic one, she will have the job of painting something on it. By the end of the weekend I should have the Canite bonded to the sub-bed plywood (I will use Liquid Nails). I'll probably seal any joints with Gyprock jointing compound to finish it off. Then I'll attach my 3mm sheet cork to it. Don't know if I will pre-paint before laying ties. I have also been doing some more practice sessions hot gluing my rails down (both code 55 and 70) with mixed results. Have also tried hot glue AND spikes as in glue the ends then add spikes for the rest. Small ME spikes seem too big for Code 55, so I decided to try my hand at cutting my own spikes from .015 KS wire. Nice little spikes and when I can see them, they look real good on the C55 rail. Don;t know if I want to go down the track of cutting ALL my spikes from .015 wire though. Anyway, I post again when I have more done or I get the camera Cheers
Well, I am officially satisfied with hot gluing the rail to ties. As Bill (Ironhorseman) has pointed out (and now I know what he means), you don't have to have a total layer down the whole length of the rail. I found that a small thin track of glue, not too thick, work brilliantly - especially on code 55 rail. So I have now finished my testing stage and, when my roadbed is finished, hot glue will be used to lay the rail. One other question for Bill though: Do you actually use hot glue for turnout construction or do you use a combination of things? Cheers Bruce
I would think you would have to use spikes or solder the rails to PC ties because you will have to solder the rail parts of the turnout and I would think that would cause the glue to come loose.
Yea, that's what I was thinking, especially when filling the frog with solder and when placing the guard rails - the glue on the rail would let go when heating the guard.
Bruce - both of you are right. If you are using PC Board to lay out your turnouts you will probably have to use spikes. I do not use PC board. I measure the angle of the frog that I need and solder the point prior to placing it in the turnout. I still use hot glue to hold it onto the ties. Heating the rail to soften the glue is not hot enough to melt the solder if you move through it fast enough, or, as I do .. I use a heat sink in those areas I want to be sure of having that protection. Using hot glue on the stock and closure rails allows frequent and fine adjustments. Glad that you have found the "secret" to applying the glue. It sure is a fast, easy to lay rail, isn't it?
