The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[ACL1504]

Wow. That's going to be an amazing addition to the layout.


John

John,

Thanks, I can't wait to see it all come together.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
That looks Awesome.

Jim

Thanks SBG Jimmy, much appreciated.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Hi Tom,

That Backdrop looks fantastic. Those are awesome scenes.

Regards,Chris

Chris,

Much appreciated. Just wait it gets better.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Looking good Tom.....

Greg,

Thanks, much appreciated.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Very cool!  Jim

Jim,

Thanks, I hope to have them up when you return to the Sunshine State.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Just the right finishing touch.

Donato,

They are very nice and you'll be very surprised to see all the others.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
           Wow! absolutely fantastic work.  Man what can one say.  I'm a fan as always. Thanks for sharing.   
                                                                                                                                                             Thanx Thom...

Thom,

Thank you, much appreciated. Thank you for all you've done for us while we were in Boston. I thoroughly enjoyed all our conversations.  Can't wait to get back.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Looks great Tom.  I love the depth it gives to the layout.

John,

I appreciate you stopping by. The 3D look is simply amazing.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Upon my return from the Boston Expo. I started right back in on the layout. One minor irritation has bugged me for the past few months. I just didn't like how the trains looked coming out of baker's Curve to the cutoff to the Ovalix.

As soon as the train came out of the curve is entered the #6 left hand turnout.

I removed 6 1/2 ft. of track and cork roadbed. I added a 6" section of straight in front of the turnout. See photo below.



New roadbed section.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

The black line in the next two photos show you the original curve.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Adding the six inches, also moved the track six inches closer to the wall. This was necessary to maintain the 36" radius.

[ACL1504]

In addition, I've been having some issues with the turnout as well. I did a thorough inspection of the turnouit and found the stock rail and switch points were out of gauge.

They weren't out that much but just enough for some trains to constantly derail. The derails occured at random times but enough to get my attention.

I made the decision to replace the turnout. However; the ballast had already been glued in place. I didn't want to removed the cork roadbed along with the turnout so this is what I did.

First a look at the new track and old turnout.

[ACL1504]

I used a #11 Xacto blade and carefully cut along the outside edge of the ties. I used the Dremel cut off disk and cut the turnout rails 1/2" from the soldered rail joiners. I then carefully removed the turnout leaving the outside ballast in place.





Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

I then unsoldered the turnout rails and rail joiners. I cleaned the old ballast from the center.



The new and in gauge turnout was installed and new rail joiners were solder to the existing stock rails on the mainline.



The white you see under the turnout is a very this piece of paper covering the hole so the new ballast doesn't fall through to the staging level.

[Twist67]

Tom.
that´s a nice solution for your problem with the new curve. You´ve also done it right with changing the turnout. If something doesn´t work right, change it....Keep it going.

Regards,Chris