I have built and marked out a small interchange yard, about 10 feet long. I put up the L girder bench with homasote glued to 1/2 ply. The area I am modeling for the waterfront area is lowlands and so a lot of wetlands/marsh areas. I had an area of muddy marsh about 12 by 23 inches and the original plan was to just fill it and rip rap the whole thing. ' Environmental regulations put the railroad in a bind. And its right in the middle of the small interchange area. So we will need to build a couple small spindly trestles about 20 feet high for the two front tracks and possibly a couple deck girder for the back two tracks which are mainline. Its just a muddy area but scenically it will be worth the effort. So out comes the saber saw to my newly built roadbed. I will put a temporary piece in place until the bridges are built. In years past I used to just build the mainline and cut in the bridges and trestles later. That did not work as well as I would like. Much harder to make stuff fit when its an afterthought.
Don't feel bad. A lot of us see plans evolve as we go along. It's all a part of the ongoing adventure.
I had thoughts of this before I put down the roadbed. It just took me a moment of sanity to come to my senses and do it now. This will be just a shelf switching layout for the near future so scenery will be a big part of what I spend my time doing. I have browsed some of the albums here and I get inspired by what other modelers do. I will take some pictures and maybe this section will make a good read.
It is done, didn't take as long as I thought. The temp section is cut to fit and so I can build the bridges at the workbench. Now the track gang can get back to work. I took some pictures and will do a before and after when I get some scenery on it.
MUCH better for some aspect of model railroading to be delayed by another aspect of model railroading, rather than by house repairs, mandatory overtime on the job (especially if "voluntary" and unpaid), entertaining uninvited and ungrateful inlaws, etc. etc. etc. etc.
Time for the "rusty spike ceremony" I just laid the first bit of track! During the building of the transcontinental railroad, some crews laid as much as 10 miles of track a day. My crew is a bit slower. In fact they leave a lot to be desired. I am using wood glue to glue the track to cork. Some person who may be fired bought push pins that are too short so a guy who may get promoted came up with 1/2 inch nails that are pushed through the cork and into the homasote. They will be removed when the glue dries. The push pins work great when its just flex track to homasote. I bought a few hundred. The wood glue takes a bit to set so I can eyeball down the track and straighten the woopdedoos. Like I can see that far? I am going to put in the feeder wires as I go so I can see a loco go back and forth. They sent an email that my digitrax system shipped by stage coach so it should be here about the time I have a few feet of track to play on. I had an accident with superglue trying to make a bad old turnout worse, I succeeded and also got it all over my hand. After fighting it with acetone, I ordered some pliobond. I found an effective way to carve homasote so it looks like angled roadbed. I use an 8 inch wide blade carking knife. I used to use it cleaning tuna. It dulls after awhile in the homasote so I have my worksharp sharpener handy and keep it as sharp as a razor blade.
