Thanks Wolfgang. I have been a fan of your work for many years. After my last post I got the ties glued down so they could dry overnight. I took this shot before I started sanding the tie tops. This is the west end looking east. and the east end looking west Note the tape is still on the ties in the foreground. After I removed all of the tape I sanded the tops of the ties lightly and I was ready to start spiking rail. Sorry about the focus. Sometimes trying to figure out the depth of field focus is a pain. Once I finish spiking this section, it will be awhile before I can start the rest of the branch since I will need more cork, ties, and rail, but this will give me a good head start on the branch. I'll probably need to order what I need as the LHS was out of stock when I was last there a week ago. The goal is to get the branch to the town of Clarksville, finish the track work in Clarksville, then to back and finish the yard and spurs in Clarksville Jct as the cement plant and co-op take shape. Also I need to build the through truss bridge that will be installed just west of Clarksville. So if I run out of something for a project, I can always start another until the needed supplies come in.
Thanks Mopac for the input. I did some calculations and when I multiply 30 feet times 12 inchs and the multiply that by .0115 (1/87), I come up with the road width I was looking for of 4.14". I did try your web site but I still have to look for what I want. Your layour looks very good. John
I made a little progress laying rail in Clarkville Jct. last night Hopefully I will be able to layout the turnouts by this weekend.
I am very impressed! You hand lay rail? Wow! I remember my days at the Great Falls Model Railroad Club. Our senior members who hand laid rail and built turnouts were like gods to me! (I was 16 years old at the time) Nice work!
The last three layouts (including the Van Buren Sub) that I built from the mid 70's were all hand-laid on the visible portions of the layout (I do use prefab and flex-track in staging). It allows me more freedom in arranging trackage as I'm not tied to the dimensions of a standard #6 or whatever frog number. Although it might take a little more time than prefab track, the best part is cost. For less than $5.00 in materials (rail, ties, cork) I can produce a $20.00 turnout. With about 15 turnouts on the branch line alone that is a considerable savings and that's just the turnouts. Depending on the brand of flex (Atlas or ME) that you use the savings are even greater. That means I have more $$$ to put towards motive power and rolling stock.
And - handlaying turnouts gives you better turnouts. With many commercial turnouts you have to do some work. And - it's fun. Wolfgang
Over the weekend a friend came over to help build and hang the framework for the lighting valance between Van Buren and Alma. You might notice I have a drop-down stairway entrance to the attic in this area that we had to work around. Later I will take down each panel and add the masonite facing and the light fixtures but for now I know everything will fit as it's supposed to.
Work continues on the trackwork in Clarkville Jct. I have installed the frogs for the turnouts on the branch. Here is the west end. I laid the stock rails up to the frog area I then built and installed the frog Then I did the same on the west end turnouts Now I can install the points and guard rails. Are we having fun yet? YOU BET!
And the fun continues. I finished the two west end turnouts with the exception of the ground throws. I'll add them when I lay the rest of the trackage. Now to finish the turnout on the east end then I can wire this section.
Wow! Here in Dallas we had what the weathermen call a 100 year event. "Officially, at the airport we received 12.5" breaking the old record of 12.1" in '64. It started snowing around 3 or 4 am Thursday morning and didn't stop until 5 am this morning. Relentless is what I called it. Yesterday afternoon I had to pull about 500 pounds of snow off of the patio roof to keep it from collapsing. I now have a better understanding why old folks like me have heart attacks clearing snow. The wet stuff is heavy. Anyway this is what I woke up to this morning, The first shot is from our front sidewalk. The magnolia tree in our yard has quite a few broken limbs. And the outside of the train room. Those poor Nandina bushes are the source of my tree armatures Now on to railroad related items. I built a new mock-up for the non-rail warehouse along the backdrop in Van Buren. The original was too small I thought so I replaced it with a larger version. In all honesty, after using the last section of cork in Clarksville Jct., I had this empty box and it looked to be about the right size for the warehouse I wanted. The construction reflects the "newer" prefab methods. Ain't cardboard a wonderful thing. This is the west end. and the east end Since I'm not going anywhere today, I'll have to find some little project to do...or not. I might just run trains. Who knows? Right now I'm just lucky to have power and heat and sitting here enjoying the beauty of the snow with a hot cup of coffee.
With all the cold weather and snow, I seem to spend more time cleaning up the limbs that have fallen due to the weight of the snow than railroading. However, I did get time to finally (after a couple of years) spike the second point in the turnout at Clarksville Jct allowing access to the newly laid track work. I just spiked the points in place to test the track work. Hopefully I will get time to install the throw rod and ground throw later today. Here is a pic of the first test train entering the branch. Unfortunately, work on the branch line has come to a halt do to lack of funding. I found out what our tax bill will be for '09 and it ain't pretty. But life goes on. Anyway I can use this trackage to store excess empty pig flats as well as spot Clarksville and Clarksville Jct bound cars. So for now it will act like a single industry similar to a interchange track. Just another switching opportunity.
I finished the mainline turnout and tested everything in Clarksville Jct. Works like a Swiss watch. Now I have a new location for cars destined for Clarksville Jct or the town of Clarksville (they were spotted on the siding in Ozark before the junction trackage was laid). Speaking of Ozark, I have been working on how to model the concrete arch bridge (highway 23) over the tracks and the river. I found a couple of pics while looking at the area on Google Earth. The first pic is looking east. The portion that I am going to model is not visible as it is to the left of the arch through truss. However you can see the concrete arch construction. And here is a night shot. This pic is looking west. The portion that I will model is the arch on the far right just before the arch through truss. Again, I did not take these photos, I found them posted on a website linked to Google Earth that had pics of the various sites found in and around Ozark. I also found a pic of the station that was taken at an angle that I didn't have. I think the best way to duplicate the arch is laminating styrene or balsa strips at the proper curve to achieve the proper thickness of the concrete. So I built a quick mock-up to see how everything would look. I also "planted" some signal line poles as shown in a pic I have of the cut that was taken in 1984.
Here are a couple of pics of the Ozark area on my layout. the first pic is a westbound freight bound for Van Buren under the highway bridge mock-up. A long shot And going away entering the cut west of the siding The extra long line pole next to the lead unit (necessary for line clearance) will have cross members added and painted to match the rest of the line poles. Houses and other structures including a hospital (false fronts probably) will be installed along the cliffs above the tracks.
26 pages later I finally made it to the last post. What a trip. This is outstanding modeling and a first rate "how to" on showcasing your layout. Keep up the great work and enjoy, because the rest of us sure are.
Thanks Graig. This has been the layout I have always wanted to build and now I have the space and the chance. Matt, this was the most snow to fall in a 24 hour period ever in Dallas. And to think we may be looking at more snow this week. After all this I am ready for the more typical Texas weather.
