Sunday, July 20, 2014

Up the Junction Part 2

The point work for Picton yard had been progressing fairly quickly with 11 points and the single slip crossover soldered up and ready to be detailed. These points are all Code 70.....here's how they look.




I've got a bit of a production line going and I've found I can punch out about 1.5 points per 1.5 hour session. The single slip, however, took somewhat longer as you would imagine due to the complexity but I think the effort has been worth it. My test bogie and test 4 wheel wagon both traverse all of the points smoothly with no stalls or wheel drops so I'm feeling confident they'll work ok once they're installed. I've got 4 Code 70 curve points to go as well as 9 Code 55 Points before I detail them all and paint them prior to installation. In retrospect, I should have painted all the points on the top deck before I installed them but then 20 / 20 hindsight is a wonderful thing....its something I'm very good at.


Sunday, July 6, 2014

Up the Junction

Since the last post, I've been busy building points for the bottom deck and I've just finished 27 of the suckers for the storage yards. Which means I can start to lay the track for the yard but it also creates another dilemma. What to use for a turntable? I'm going to install a 90ft turntable so I can turn anything up to a 57 class so do I go for something prototypical like the Anton's Trains example and install DCC for it or use a Walthers 90 ft 'table that already has DCC control installed? I'll have to have a think about it as I originally intended to scenic the storage yards but now the helix is installed to get to the top deck, there isn't a whole lot of space now so having an accurate turntable isn't that necessary. I just need one that is going to be reliable.

So onto other things. I've been building the points and crossover for the Loop line junction. I think I'm developing a form of "Stockholm Syndrome" You know, when you start liking the very thing that's tormenting you??? I am actually starting to enjoy building the points and crossovers. Here's how it looks at the moment.




As you can see, there's still a fair bit to go with cleaning up the solder, electrically isolating the tracks and adding sleepers and details but it seems to work OK with some limited tests on the workbench. Next, I'm going to tackle the complex point work and single slip crossover in Picton yard which will also mean I'll have broken the back of building the points. Another step closer to finishing the track laying.