The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 3

[ACL1504]

Cousin Brucie,

If you don't mind I'm not going to go into a long list here of how I did the roads.

As mentioned, I'll be doing a few new roads in the coming weeks and will go into much more detail with photos as I do them.

Thanks for your patience. Now, have an ice cold Diet Pepsi on me.

Tom

[postalkarl]

Hey Tom:

I have to say that you do beautiful work on the RR. Yu can be very proud of it.

Karl

[PRR Modeler]

Great work on the whole sand complex. I can't wait to see it in person

[Bruce Oberleitner]

Thanks Tom. 
I am looking at doing some new sections of railroad after I recover from some nagging illnesses.  Your roads look amazing and simple to build and I want to give them a try.  My problem is that in Boise ID sometimes finding RR supplies can be a challenge when your best hobby store for RR stuff is Micheals.

Hopefully their will be some details coming soon on my evil projects in the works.  I have two on the bench that I am trying to wrap up for next month's NMRA modeling contest here in Boise.  I plan on posting threads on these projects after the contest.  Add oddly, one is in O scale!

[ACL1504]

Hey Tom:

I have to say that you do beautiful work on the RR. Yu can be very proud of it.

Karl

Karl,

You are very kind and generous with the compliment. Thank you, much appreciated as always. I'm very satisfied with the work to this point.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Great work on the whole sand complex. I can't wait to see it in person

Curt,

Thank you, appreciate you checking in. Come by anytime my friend, just call and make sure I'll be here.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Thanks Tom. 
I am looking at doing some new sections of railroad after I recover from some nagging illnesses.  Your roads look amazing and simple to build and I want to give them a try.  My problem is that in Boise ID sometimes finding RR supplies can be a challenge when your best hobby store for RR stuff is Micheals.

Hopefully their will be some details coming soon on my evil projects in the works.  I have two on the bench that I am trying to wrap up for next month's NMRA modeling contest here in Boise.  I plan on posting threads on these projects after the contest.  Add oddly, one is in O scale!

Cousin Brucie,

I know you've been having some heath issues and I wish there was something I could do to help other than offer Diet Pepsi's.

Our local hobby shop is dropping a few lines of products. They say the companies are closing the doors and it is hard for them to keep stuff in stock when they can't get what they need. Of course, this trickles down to the consumer as well.

I'm relying more and more on the internet for stuff although I know it doesn't help the local hobby shop. I have to get what I need no matter where.

I'll be starting the roads in a few days.

Tom

[Jerry]

I sure wish the roads in Jersey looked that good!!

Beautiful work Tom.

Jerry

[ACL1504]

I sure wish the roads in Jersey looked that good!!

Beautiful work Tom.

Jerry

Jerry,

The one great thing about Florida roads is that we don't have to fight the snow and water freezing in the cracks making the roads even worse. Sure, we get our potholes but they are small compared to some I've crossed up north.

Thank you for the compliment on the layout and for looking in.

Tom

[ACL1504]

One of the things I debated in my mind was whether to use Tortoise motors to control the turnouts in the center island area. As mentioned, the width of the layout here is only 24 inches. All turnouts can be easily reached from either side of the isle.

I finally decided to NOT use Tortoise switch motors. Every turnout will be literally a hand throw. Not those big black "out of scale" throws. Just plain old "five fingered hand throws".


I'm not sure anyone has noticed the black areas under each turnout. Here is what I'm referring to.





More in a few.

[ACL1504]

These areas were marked with a black magic marker. The area directly under the throw bar will remain free of ballast. This is another reason I marked the area in black.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

On the outside track I used Arizona Rock ballast. I used it here, on the island area, but experienced an issue with the ballast "floating" after the matte medium/glue was applied.

I didn't experience this at all with the rest of the layout. Here is what I'm referring to. You can see the ballast has floated and dried on the ties and up against the rails.

Not to bad in the next two photos.







More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Much worse in these photos.





This isn't a big deal but one that took some extra time and effort to correct.

This may be very common and basic in ballasting track but it's the first time I've experienced the issue.

To remove the offending ballast I started by rubbing my fingers on the ballast to remove it. After a while, my fingers were somewhat sore and raw on the tips. Yea, stupid me!

I could have just rubbed my fingers across some course sandpaper for the same result on the finger tips.

More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Then the lights came on in my head and I decided that rubbing the ballast with my fingers hurt, so I stopped.


I cut a piece of cork roadbed and used it to remove the offending ballast.

Piece of fresh cork - Before



Cork - After



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is how the track and ballast looked after using the cork to remove the excess ballast stones.





Another lesson learned and a new technique for removing excess ballast all in one.