The Atlantic and Southern Build, Part 1

[GPdemayo]

Are you slacking again.....no progress posts since the 13th. 

[ACL1504]

Very "PINK" Tom

Andy,

Believe it or not, when I was the Special Ops. Commander at the Orlando International Airport, I had a Pink Panther in my office. It was a gift from my Babe. I had it sitting on my desk, propped up against the wall with one leg hanging over the edge of the desk. It was about two feet tall and was a hit with all the visiting LEO's.  Oh, and he was wearing a pair of Mickey Mouse ears.

No brag, just fact.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
           I guess it's settled!  You don't have Rhodophobia.  Infact I'm Rhodophobia free also.  Thanx Thom...

KPI,

No not me, in fact, I have six golf shirts of colors from red to pink. No rhodophobia here. This railroad is a rhodophobia free zone.

Rhodophobia is a cousin to Chromophobia, the fear of colors! Just saying.

KPII

[ACL1504]

Tom


The thread and the layout are looking great - you sure put a lot of work into rebuilding the thread.  Thank you for sharing it all with us - again.  Please take a few minutes and do a backup like we talked about.  Just say-in!

John,

Thanks for the kind words of support. I'm working on the backup and may be calling you in a few days.

Tom

Tom


Call any time. You are posting like a crazy man.  I had to go back 5 pages to find where I left off.

Johm,

Thanks my friend. My posts come in bunches like bananas. One to many at a time.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Gee, Tom, all that pink reminds me of the Pink Panther.  You know, "Dead ant, dead ant..."  It is your fault that will be playing in my head all day, lol!

Jerry,

Yes, it does doesn't it? Please read my response above to Andy.

Tom

[ACL1504]

And as I caught up on this thread, a horrible image whistled through my head: Tom, out in the man  cave doing all this scenery work wearing one of those truly ridiculous PINK shirts/sweatshirts. You know the ones I mean. You see them at the malls and in stores. Goofy people wearing black shirts with the word PINK on them. News flash: black can't be PINK. Hopefully, neither is Tom wearing one of them. Model railroading is one thing. Fashion is another.

Chip,

Rest easy, it didn't happen. I do have many shades of Pink golf shirts though. I don't work in them, only play.
I'm a man who isn't afraid to wear any shade of pink.

Tom

Tom

[ACL1504]

The scene is looking good Tom.

Stay cool and run steam........

Bob,

Thank you much appreciated.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Foam would be much easier than drilling a 1000 holes into the plywood.

Curt,

My thoughts exactly.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Are you slacking again.....no progress posts since the 13th. 

Greg,

What me, a slacker? Well, sometimes but here I was only spoon feeding the information.


Tom

[GPdemayo]

Are you slacking again.....no progress posts since the 13th. 

Greg,

What me, a slacker? Well, sometimes but here I was only spoon feeding the information.


Tom

Well maybe not.....now get off the computer and get back to work. 

[ACL1504]

It seems that the S&S RR isn't the only railroad that needed to replace some bad track.

I'm not sure about the S&S RR, but the rails and ties must have shifted when the earthquake came through East Tahope.

I noticed the shifted track while filming one of the local passenger trains coming around Baker's Curve.




I tried to repair the track the easy way and it didn't work. However, I'll share what I tried to do.

In the above photo you can see that I wet the ballast with wet water and let it soak in for about thirty minutes.

I then removed all the track spikes and used a steel ruler and tried to move/straighten the track, ballast and all.



Sometimes you just can't fix stupid! I was not successful in fixing the track but I was very successful in mucking up the whole thing.

More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I made the executive decision to remove the track, ballast and roadbed.



After the plywood was dry, I sanded the plywood to get a smooth surface to start over.



I'll share more of this repair tomorrow.

[Erieman]

OUCH, that hurts, but you made the right decision. Cut, remove and replace. I think we all have had to do this at least once. I have had a temperature event that created a three way switch rising off the cork roadbed. It looked like a mountain versus your extra curve. Also not pretty.


As usual, you are doing a wonderful job on your beautiful layout. Keep up the great work, my friend.


Frank / Erieman

[cuse]

Looked straight to me...but I model backwoods Maine narrow gauge, so it's all perspective


Haven't caught up in a while, but the layout looks great here. Usually I don't like re-runs, but...


John

[S&S RR]

It seems that the S&S RR isn't the only railroad that needed to replace some bad track.

I'm not sure about the S&S RR, but the rails and ties must have shifted when the earthquake came through East Tahope.

I noticed the shifted track while filming one of the local passenger trains coming around Baker's Curve.




I tried to repair the track the easy way and it didn't work. However, I'll share what I tried to do.

In the above photo you can see that I wet the ballast with wet water and let it soak in for about thirty minutes.

I then removed all the track spikes and used a steel ruler and tried to move/straighten the track, ballast and all.



Sometimes you just can't fix stupid! I was not successful in fixing the track but I was very successful in mucking up the whole thing.

More in a few.

Hi Tom


The S&S RR has diagnosed our track problem and plans on trying to fix it with the same technique.  Wet it down and try to save it.  Since a few inches of the repair are on top of the trestle I may need to add some new trestle decking. I also ordered a couple more sections of bridge track so I had it on hand just in case we need plan B.