The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 3

[ACL1504]

I then removed the roofs on each passenger car and replaced the old Walthers 12V lights with the new Walthers LED light bars.

The old Walthers light bars were nothing more than a light bar with four 1 amp diodes to make it a constant lighting unit.

The following photo shows the new LED light bar on top and the old light bar on the bottom. You can see the lights and LEDs - this is the underside or side facing the interior.



Here is a look at the top side.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

The next photo shows the old light bar in a passenger car.



Same car with a new LED light bar.



The light bar is Walthers Number 920-1060. Several years ago the Judge and I ordered 80 of the new LED light bars to have on hand for such an occasion. We got them on sale for about 40% off.

Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I've always believed in scale with railroad modeling. Our hobby paints are to scale as we don't use 1:1 house paint on our wood structures. I believe the DCC sound should be in scale as well. To loud a horn or exhaust and the sound doesn't fit the scale of the model its in.

I'll also throw in scale speed. A fast HO scale train becomes a toy and not a model when run a notch 20!

So to is the length of a train on a layout. The length of a train should be in scale with the size of the layout. Although I can pull a passenger train with 20 cars, it isn't to the scale of the layout.


On my old layout, a freight would typically consisted of a steam loco and 15 cars including the caboose. Now, on this layout, a good size freight consists of maybe two or three F units pulling 18 to 20 cars and a caboose. We've pulled 25-30 freight in the past but it just looks to long.

The ACL Champion is a great example. It has A-B-A E units for power, an REA reefer, baggage car and eleven passenger cars.

As Curt mentioned, "that is a long train". I agree and removed two cars from the consist. To me it now looks better suited to the size of the layout and looks better as well.

[MAP]

That is one beautiful (long!!) consist you have there Tom.  I'm sure the removal of a couple of cars isn't going to affect the grandness of it moving through the towns on your layout.  I imagine that those LED light bars draw much less power from the layout and give off a much better interior lighting.

[ACL1504]

That is one beautiful (long!!) consist you have there Tom.  I'm sure the removal of a couple of cars isn't going to affect the grandness of it moving through the towns on your layout.  I imagine that those LED light bars draw much less power from the layout and give off a much better interior lighting.

Mark,


Yepper, the train still looks good but the nine cars seems more natural for the size of my layout. The LED light bars do make a big difference and as you said draws less amps from the track.

Appreciate you checking in.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Today I started building the 30 degree crossing using the Fast Tracks crossing jig.



Greg cut some of the copper/brass strips for me - thank you kind sir.

The jig is made so the soldering strips can only fit in the designated slots.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I used a Dremel and polished the strips so the solder will flow better. The one on the right is polished and the one on the left is dull.



All the strips were polished and placed in the slots on the jig.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I started by bending and placing the two outside rails in the jig.

I used a small paint tip from Micro Mark to apply some solder paste to the soldering strips and the outside edge of the rail.





More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I'm using a Weller 300 Watt soldering iron the Judge bought me one Christmas.



I started soldering the outside rails to the strips and realized I was soldering them on the inside. I then soldered all the rest on the outside of the rails. The guard rails need to be soldered in place and to much solder will not allow them to be seated flush.

In the next photo you can see the two I soldered on the inside.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I wanted to test and make sure the crossing was flat, it was.



I placed it back in the jig and won't remove it until the crossing is complete.

This is as far as I got this afternoon. I should get it finished tomorrow.

[S&S RR]

Tom


It's great to see you back at it - there are sure a lot of words of wisdom in the last few pages. There is enough tips for a couple 500  model railroading tips books in your layout build threads.  I really enjoyed your discussion of train length and layout size.  I've visited layouts where a train was in two or three towns at the same time.

[PRR Modeler]

This is very cool Tom, as I have never done anything like this.

[ReadingBob]

Pretty neat.  I enjoy hand laying track so I'm following along with great interest (and a desire to get back into laying some track).

[Zephyrus52246]

A couple of questions.  Is the solder paste like a flux or a true paste that holds the rails in place while you solder?  Do you bend the rail in the jig itself? 


Jeff

[GPdemayo]

You're welcome.....glad to be of help.