The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[ACL1504]

Looking very nice, Tom.

I must admit - I looked at your picture and thought 'there's a track missing there' and then realised it was an overlay!  Very nice work!

Cheers, Mark.

Mark,

I appreciate your kind remarks. The picture is a bit confusing when I look at it now. I'm running trains in this area and will have photos up probably Friday evening.

Tom

[ACL1504]

You can see that I just moved the flex track out of the way.



I then removed old cork roadbed  and the rest of the track from the area.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I glued new cork roadbed for the new track.





I removed the left hand turnout and replaced it with a right hand turnout.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is the new mainline. You can see the black line in the middle, this was the old mainline angle.



Here is another view of the new mainline - looking South.



New mainline looking North.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I also finished the tracks in the small lubritorium.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

And now, here is the before photo.



And the after photo of the new mainline.



Much smoother and better mainline trackage.

[GPdemayo]

Looking good Tom.....

[martin.ojaste]

Tom, those curves are kinda sensuous. Or am I sick?

[Zephyrus52246]

Looks much better, Tom.  I think you'd be one of those people using the Fast Tracks make them as you need them turnouts that would make impeccably beautiful track.  It takes time, but it's not like you're on a deadline.  July 2017 is AGES away.   


Jeff

[ACL1504]

Looking good Tom.....

Greg,

Thanks, much appreciated, I think? Oh, you mean the track change! Thanks, that's much appreciated as well.


Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom, those curves are kinda sensuous. Or am I sick?

Martin,

Thank you and no you are not sick. I was thinking the same thing!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Looks much better, Tom.  I think you'd be one of those people using the Fast Tracks make them as you need them turnouts that would make impeccably beautiful track.  It takes time, but it's not like you're on a deadline.  July 2017 is AGES away.   


Jeff

Dr. Jeff,

I appreciate your comment, thank you. Yes, I did actually consider using Fast Tracks turnouts. I'm still thinking about them as I have several of the FT jigs. However, with the new TCS WOW sound decoders, I can safely use the Walthers code 83 turnouts.

Fast Tracks turnouts may certainly used on the third level. I know of two or three that I'll need to make as nobody else makes what I'll be needing.

My goal now is to get the second level finished and the third level bracketing finished for July 2017. Like you said so very far away.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Over the past few days I've been doing little things that take time but are necessary. Yesterday I drilled holes and inserted the wires for the small lubritorium.





Since this area will also be used for small diesel storage, I needed to have the four tracks wired  and be on on/off toggles. This way I can turn off the tracks and thus the diesel noise. Several diesels at idle are quit noisy. Fast forward and the toggles are installed and wired. I still need to paint the fascia.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

You may have noticed in earlier photos the light blue paper under the track and turnouts. I used the paper to shim the track where only a minuscule of adjustment is needed.

For the turnouts, the paper is used for an entirely different reason. When I drilled the holes in the plywood for the Tortoise turnout linkage, I made them large enough so I had room for adjustments. After the turnouts were installed you could see the hole.



When the track is ballasted, the hole will be more obvious in the area of the throw bar. I used the light blue paper to fill in these areas. The paper slips under the track and will be secured with the ballast glue. The paper is so thin it doesn't affect the height of the turnouts.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Frank Baker, Erieman, mentioned in an earlier post he saw the start of a third level. Or maybe he was the only one brave enough to mention it.

Yes, the third level is started but only in a testing stage at this time. I'll need to make a major change but I'll get into that at a later time.

Many of you may remember my Babe and I visited Cliff Powers and his fantastic Magnolia Route layout in June of 2014. Upon my return from Cliff's, I did a photo thread of the visit.

http://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=484.0




I give all the credit to Cliff for the knowledge of how I'm doing the third level. In fact I told ya'll last year when I removed my old layout, I was going to plagiarize as much of his ideas as possible. I even told Cliff the same thing. Well, sixteen months later here I am still doing just that.

Here is a look of how he did the third level using brackets on the wall. The brackets are in the upper portion of the photo below.



Continued in a few.