The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 3

[MAP]

Great progress Tom.  I appreciate all of the pictures and explanations you offer in your thread.  Always informative and helpful!

[ReadingBob]

I am confused.......North is South and South is North.  I think you better get a new Compass or I need to recalibrate my eyes.

Jim

Jim,

Problem fixed, my eyes had dyslexia with letters. I did say cutting the grass took the wind and letters out of my sails.

Tom

Well on the first day of the battle of Gettysburg the South did attack from the North the North defended from the South.   

Lot's of progress being made on the Summit!  The Judge will be very happy. 

[ACL1504]

Great progress Tom.  I appreciate all of the pictures and explanations you offer in your thread.  Always informative and helpful!

Mark,

Thank you and you are welcome. It's all part of the process of sharing the build.

Tom

[ACL1504]

I am confused.......North is South and South is North.  I think you better get a new Compass or I need to recalibrate my eyes.

Jim

Jim,

Problem fixed, my eyes had dyslexia with letters. I did say cutting the grass took the wind and letters out of my sails.

Tom

Well on the first day of the battle of Gettysburg the South did attack from the North the North defended from the South.   

Lot's of progress being made on the Summit!  The Judge will be very happy.

Bob,

Yepper, the South was doing well until General Lee decided it would be a good idea to go to Gettysburg. And, there is where all his officers decided to drink the cool aid.

Summit is going to be a busy yard. Lots of stuff to do.

Tom

[Jerry]

Tom just getting caught up again.

Your progress is amazing.

So is North South or South North!! 

Great job on this section!

Jerry

[ACL1504]

Tom just getting caught up again.

Your progress is amazing.

So is North South or South North!! 

Great job on this section!

Jerry

Jerry,

Thank you and it is easy for me to get things done as I don't have a farm and barnyard critters to attend to.

North is South and South is North. It's all part of the Empire here.   I appreciate you checking in.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Work on the Summit Yard continues. Here is a view from the North, looking South to the South end of the East Yard at Summit located on the Southeast corner of the layout. Got that ya'll?





When finished it will have seven tracks with one dedicated to MOW and Wreck Train. I'm still deciding where to locate a caboose track.

All Kadee uncoupler magnets are installed as well.

More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Due to the number of turnouts in the yard area, I was unable to avoid the Tortoise switch motor interfering with a cross braces. I did plan and locate all mainline turnouts so the braces wouldn't be an issue.

Also, my signals are controlled by the Tortoise motors so these turnout locations were a priority.

I was going to just have hand throws for the yard area turnouts. However, looking into the future, I saw a great amount of damage to cars in the yard, scenery and structures. Having visitors reach over stuff to throw a turnout just is to scary for me.

I decided to add turnout control knobs or the old stand by "push/pulls" on the fascia.

I didn't invent this method and it has been around for 50+ years.

Here is how I installed mine.

I drilled a 3/32" hole in the fascia one inch below the top of the fascia. Don't need to show this as I hope ya'll know what a hole in the fascia look like.


I then bent a piece of .032 music wire to a 90 degree angle.



I then placed the 90 degree bend over the center of the throwbar as shown.

The music wire was cut two inches longer from the outside edge of the fascia.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I then inserted a 3/32 brass tube into the fascia hole and pushed it until it was centered in the hole as shown.



I then backed it to the fascia edge of the hole, marked it and cut it to that length flush at the fascia.



Continued -

[ACL1504]

I got a little ahead of myself so let me backup a few photos.

The two lines are where the 1X3 brace is located under the plywood. You can see how close to the brace the turnout throwbar is.



The is no way to correctly install a Tortoise under this turnout.



More in a few. This time I'm grabbing a Diet Pepsi.

[ACL1504]

From the backside of the fascia and layout edge, the music wire is fed through the hole and up to the hole for the drawbar. The brass tube is then slid over the wire and pushed flush to the fascia.



Here is how it looks from the underside of the turnout area.



Continued -

[ACL1504]

In order to hold the brass tubing in place I cut a small block of wood, cut a notch and glued it over the brass tubing near the hole as shown.





Continued -

[ACL1504]

Installing these wasn't difficult but did take about 30 minutes each. I've done 8 so far with 10 to go.





Now I need to find small knobs or beads to glue over the wire.

NOTE:

The wires will be cut much closer to the fascia once a suitable knob or bead is found.

[PRR Modeler]

Looks awesome Tom.

[Bruce Oberleitner]

Very cool explanation on installing those push/pull turnout controls Uncle Tommie.  The new section of the railroad looks quite nice.

BTW, when you lay your yard tracks, do you do anything special to allow for rail expansion/contraction?  I've seen some people leave rail gaps here and there.  I know if you solder the whole thing together you get a a bunch of squiggly tracks two years later (IE don't ask how I know this). 

Have a Diet Pepsi on me.