Starting on building the Main yard

 As you can see, we are coming up the hill from the horseshoe curve after Milton. We are approaching the main yard limits by the power pack. The homasote is down and I am starting to lay out the location of the crossing from the westbound main to the eastbound main to allow the trains to come out of the yard up by the saw. The drill track will end by the power pack.

 

Now we have entered teh yard and are looking at the trammel where I have drawn the yard track center lines . You can see the two main tacks to the left, then the two arrival/departure tracks and then we have 4 yard tracks and a thoroughfare track on the extreme right (out of the picture) 

 Another view of the trammel that shows you how the yard bends around in a 180 degree curve. The yard tracks will be about 40 feet long so I will have a decent capacity for freight cars. When I finish laying this out, I will be able to drill the yard from both ends. Thus, I will put a caboose track on each end for convenience.

In this view I am showing that I have elevated the main tracks 1/4 inch above the yard tracks. The Arrival/Departure tracks are 1/8 inch higher than the yard. When I lay the tracks, the main will be code 140 as will the Arrival/Departure tracks. The yard will be code 125. All this is an effort to show the lighter duty track that the yard was generally laid with. I will also vary the ballast color.

This is a view of the east end of the yard. the throat of the freight tracks will be between the yellow card stock (used to try to even out the variances in thickness of the homasote) and the coke can. To the right of the Coke can, the engine service tracks and, hopefully, a small passenger car yard will peel off to the right.

This is an overview of the area that will house the diesel storage (beyond the red and white box) the turntable (center rear), the roundhouse (far left rear), and the passenger car yard. The main will continue 

off to the right of the wide column and the branch will form the end of the drill track and parallel the main beyond the column. I still have to cut the last of the homasote and lay it in down by the column.
The goal for the next month is to get one track complete through the yard (the westbound main) so the grandchildren will  finally see a train run around when they come for Christmas so time is running out!

Still working up the hill

Well, you can see that I have built the curve up to the staright away which will soon have us at the yard limits. I will continue with this process until I reach teh top of the hill at the entrance to the Northumberland Yard. We have measured the length of the yard tracks and they are 40 feet long. So, I will have to build a pretty long drill track on each end for the switchers to use.

Coming up the hill

We have the homasote down and have put on the plaster shoulders. This picture and the following show the work from the hidden track up to the start of the yard trackage.

The horseshoe curve is now built. We are coming up the hill to Northumberland.  After the plaster is dry (two coats) we then paint the whole surface with flat black paint to simulate cinders.  

Continuing to build the main line

Well, I have a new computer and a new operating system and needless to say, I am having some learnings about how to post to the blog. It started with problems loading the pictures, now posting the text and who knows what else will be a problem. That is why there have not been any posts for a while. But we are struggling up the learning curve and this is the first evidence of progress. Meanwhile, I have continued working on the layout so you will see some concentrated postings to catch you up on where we are now. I have build all the substructure for the main and am now trying to get the homasote down. These shots show the building out from the hidden siding into Milton which is just west of the main yard. You can see the laying of the cut roadbed, the N scale cork that is used for super elevation on the curves and then the plaster shoulders in palce. We are approaching the big horse shoe curve at the end of the room that turns us back up hill towards Northumberland.

Finishing the main line - Part 2

Well, here we go! I have completed the roadbed and spliced it together while it was on the framework. Then, I temporarily raised it up so I could cut the end where it meets the yard. I did not splice that to allow it to float while I set the actual grade.

In the first couple of pictures, you can see that the roadbed is aligned, and there are temporary supports to give me the idea of what we have to do (to determine the actual percent gradient) and to cut the risers. You can see the cross members are cut and laying on the roadbed.

There is a sag in the roadbed as I have not established the final grade. It turns out that it is a bit steep so I made the grade 1.85% on the curved portion to compensate for the drag of the train on the curve. I stiffened the grade to 2.3% on the long straight away as that will be about the same rolling resistance.

The risers are now in but just held by clamps as I start working with the level and looking at the edge of the roadbed by eye to take out minor sags. I also have to cross level the roadbed with the small red level.

We are getting closer to the final grade as I work my way up the grade with the two leveling tools. I also use a 4 foot ruler to slide on edge to see that the roadbed is not wavy under the yellow level.

Well, here we are with the finished grade. It took two days to get it all set from the curve on the bottom up to the yard at my right. Total distance is about 550 inches with 9.5 inches of elevation change. I had to include a long vertical easement at each end as I have some long wheelbase engines.

It really will look nice when the track is snaking around here. That is the next step - roadbed and then track. I have to use the trammel to draw the edges of the roadbed so I can lay that and prepare it for the track.
I have left the trammel in place so I do not have to re-establish the center point.

Installing the last of mainline sub roadbed Part 1

Well, it took me about a week but I have finished with the subroadbed for the main line. My biggest problem was horsing a piece of 4X8 by 3/4 inch plywood up onto the bench work. Once there, I used my trusty trammel, as shown in the first picture, to draw the outline of the roadbed. I started over by Milton on the right and, as shown in second picture, came around the bend to begin the long climb up to the yard.

The third picture shows how I mounted the pencil in a small wooden block and then clamped it to the reach rod of the trammel. This gave me a great deal of flexibility on the radius that I wanted to use. The curves here will be 62 inch and 66 inch radius, with easement curves.

The reach rod is a 1/2 inch angle left over from trimming in a storm door a long time ago.

Here you can see how I am drawing on the sheet which has already been cut once. I have completed the bulk of the curve and now am curving back to go up the hill. The loose pieces are what I will use to complete the roadbed up the hill.

You can see the pencil lines that I will cut along with the sabre saw to get the outline that I need.

Some of the roadbed is now cut. I am screwing it to the framing to hold it in place as I draw the rest of the outline of what I need.

This last shot shows me down to the last piece that I need to cut to make the curve. The curved benchwork is a of a similar radius so that the roadbed approaches the edge as it finishes the turn.