Bob- I have gone through your albums at both sites. Your work is terrific and you obviously have a thing for fresh fish. I see that you have painted the ties and spacing grey. In a few areas, it looks like you tried rusting it a bit with raw sienna or close to it. Is there a reason NOT to add ballast between the ties other than personal choice?
PowerSteamGuy Thanks. By "Operations" - do people mean switching cars around which would inlude pushing cars over turnouts which is notorius for detrailments? Can you get manual Unitrak turnouts?
GG: You can operate the Kato turnouts manually. The controller for the Kato turnout is easy to set and use.. You clip the controllers together and use an adapter to connect the entire string of turnout controllers to the 12v terminals of your power supply. If you use DCC, you can control all the Kato turnouts with a handheld device and you don't need the controllers. The Kato turnouts are "bullet proof". Derailments rarely if at all happen. That's the beauty of the Unitrack. I can run the JJJ&E for hours at a time with no derailments. I usually run 28 car trains with an FT ABBA unit. The steam loco's will pull shorter strings of cars. The trains could be longer, but that length is the length of my shortest reverse loop. There are four reversing loops on the JJJ&E, which are controlled by individual reverse loop modules. Stay cool and run steam...
Geeky, I use Unitrack for the mains and Peco code 80 for the yard and spurs. Reason being, I wanted my mains to be flawless operationally and I wanted them to look like mains. I wanted my spurs to be more run-down looking and using the Peco flex track I have very few connections. I used Peco #4 snap-switches in the yard, and one or two atlas custom-line switches just because I had them. They seem to be fine, but I like the snap-swithces better. That isn't their real name, but they are spring loaded for positive contact. For the Peco sections I used AMI sticky roadbed. I'm not sure I would use it again. It's easy to work with, but doesn't stick like I thought it would and doesn't hold the ballast all that well. I'll still have to glue down ballast which is what I was trying to get away from. Kato sections I just threw down on the plywood. They will be glued down as the scenery goes in. I would post a pic but I have no idea how to on this board. Cheers!
Thanks Guys. I am having more fun now. I cut out around the portals and will redo the placement. I was glad that I didn't have to cut off the mountain top. Loco1999 [ 23. November 2004, 12:49: Message edited by: loco1999 ]
I can feel the C55 force getting weaker in me. I can also feel the Kato force of ready to run action getting stronger. --MUST-- ---RESIST--- -URGE- -TO- ---SPEND--- -MORE- ----MONEY----
Mark: I used grimy black on the ties and roadbed. I then added burnt umber, burnt sienna on the spikes and on the rails. I also added dust, mud and earth on the ties. You must remember that I handpainted the track after it was in place. The JJJ&E is run by DCC and I didn't know how painted rails would affect the DCC. End of story.... it wasn't a problem. I would airbrush the track before any scenery if I had to do it over. The PictureTrail Site has all digital photo's of the JJJ&E. The Webshots site is pre-digital taken with a A Canon- Elf and flash. The flash is a no-no in model railroading photography as all the colors are distorted. You could add very fine ballast if you wanted to. A "0" grade ballast would be ideal. I didn't want to do this after the fact. The problem with adding the ballast between the ties is not the ballast, but the glue/water/soap mix. There is no place for the liquid to go. Therefore, the ballast would be all over the track. I use an medicine dropper to spread the glue/water/soap mix to the ballast anyways. I might try adding ballast at some point in time. I tried it on two pieces of Unitrack in a siding and it took quite some time to get right. This might be a project when most other projects have been completed. Once you start , you have to finish it. Stay cool and run steam....
Bob- "The problem with adding the ballast between the ties is not the ballast, but the glue/water/soap mix. There is no place for the liquid to go. Therefore, the ballast would be all over the track." AHA- Although I am an ace at ballasting the same sections of the layout repeatedly, I had not contemplated what you just brought forward about nowhere for the liquid to go. Thank you for your experience.
Mark: On Kato Unitrack the "glue/wter/soap mix" has no place to go. With regular code 80 or 55 track the "glue/water/soap mix" can flow between the ties and drain easily. Stay cool and run steam.....
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/marktulip/abl http://www.railimages.com/gallery/marktulip/abm Bob- You got me to thinking- Sort of dry adhesive that is not wet. I tried the following- AND PLEASE IGNORE THE MESS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE TRACK. I AM DOING THIS FOR BETWEEN THE TIES. Elmer's Spray Adhesive on the BARE Kato track. Then- let it dry a minute or two. Then- sprinkle the ballast between the track. Shake it a bit front and back and side to side to allow ballast not touching adhesive to shift and touch glue. Then- take a cheap foam paint appicator as is sold in the orange or blue stores and holding it laterally, run it across the top of the rails. Press down a bit as you are doing it to have it start touching the ballast on top of the ties. Keep on wiping. Press a bit firmer. Much of the ballast sitting on top of the ties will be wiped away. Please see pictures of same with links above.
Nice job Fotheringill, Keep at it. It will be cool to see more on this. This was my test piece, I ripped it up and set it next to Atlas code55... Not very good between the rails. But I do like it. Loco1999
Mark: I guess you could do that before the track is laid. When I ballasted the track on the JJJ&E; I first laid the track and used a hot glue gun to keep the track in place. I then ballasted the track. I didn't ballast between the ties after the track was down. I did however try it on a siding as I stated above. It works, but takes an inordinate amount of time to do one piece properly. In the photo below, you see the upper level of the JJJ&E. This would correspond to the upper level on your layout. On the left is the unfinished part of that level. You can see where I luted the Unitrack to the foam with the hot glue gun. This keeps the track firmly in place on the foam. Before I used the glue gun, I tested the track with different loco's to make sure the grades and shims on the outer rails were ok. After the track was tested and glued in position, I retested the track. The final stage was to ballast the Unitrack which you see on the right side of the photo. Hopes this helps you out. The left side of the photo is ready for ballast to be added to either side of the Unitrack. Here is a heiocopter view of part of that finished area. This will give you a different perspective: Stay cool and run steam on Unitrack:
Loco1999: You did a great job of blending the Unitrack into your layout. As a matter of personal opinion, I would keep the ballast in between the ties to an absolute minimum. It might interfere with the wheel sets and cause derailments from stray pieces of ballast that would "float " to the top and cause a problem. This is my opinion FWIW... Stay cool and run steam.....
Bob, Good point. There may be enough room down there. I was on code55 and now I'm on code80. But I don't want any track problems. I won't be painting and /or ballasting track for a while. Loco1999
PowerSteamGuy, HotGlue? instead of white glue? I'm guessing that with the Kato if it runs smoothly with no glue then you will never need to adjust it and so permanent is ok. I HotGlue permanent? Can you recover the track if you have to take It up?
GG: You can remove the hot glue from the track with an Exacto blade. It's not a problem. How would use you white glue to adhere the Unitrack to any surface? I don't think there's enough surface area under the Unitrack for the white glue to adhere to. That's due to the way Kato made the under surface of the track. The Glue gun works well for me. I used it on the original JJJ&E. I'm using it now on the turnatble and engine facility module I'm adding to the JJJ&E. The only adjustments that have to made on Unitrack deals with the curves. I shim the outer edge of the Unitrack to "bank" it slightly. I do this obviously before the track is permanently glued to the foam base. Stay cool and run steam....
Mark: I used foam for the entire base of the JJJ&E on top of the wood plywood base. I then placed the track on one inch foam strips on the level areas of the JJJ&E so I could develop scenery below the level of the track. AS the grade of the JJJ&E increased from level to elevated I used the WS risers. The JJJ&E doesn't have much level track on the mainline at it's lowest level. In the photo, the lowest level of the JJJ&E runs from three o'clock to about the 5 o'clock position. That would be where the caboose and last two cars of the freight train are.. The scenery in that area is below the track level on both sides. If the track was on a level with the benchwork, it would be difficult to develop scenry for the mountainous area that the JJJ&E depicts. WS makes one inch foam sheets that are 12" x24" that you could cut up to the appropriate width you need. I used this for the roadbed of the Unitrack and then put the risers on top of it to get the additional height I needed. The upper level of the JJJ&E at its highest point is 7 1/2 inches above the benchwork. That's alot of foam in many areas, but it isn't hard to do if you plan it out and take your time. To reach that highest point, I had to use at least three -four sets of WS risers plus the one inch piece of base foam. Stay cool and run steam...
You guys are really providing a very convincing arguement for using unitrack. Especially for a semi permanent layout like I am planning. I always wonder why modellers don't use rubber cement for things. I have had very good luck with rubber cement because things don't have to be porous to stick. It is also not permanent. It makes things stick like your whole layout is put togethewr with post it notes. Want to make changes just peel it up and try again. It also cleans up easily. I went window shopping today for unitrack. My LHS sells unitrack curved 45% four packs for 6.40$. Is this a reasonable price or does it get cheaper online? Loco 1999 I really am impressed with the ballast job you did. I can't really tell the two kinds of track appart very easily. What kind of ballast did you use? Power steam how long did it take to get running trains on your layout?
