Staging track complete

I now have track laid from the main (lower) yard, across the visible main line, to the top of the hill (sawmill yard), down the helix and back through the 4-track staging area, and linked back in with an optional continuous-run track (not used for normal operation, but nice to have for just letting a train run every now and then.

Roadbed is done up to the logging camp, and track is laid partway up, but I haven't yet finalized the track arrangement in the logging camp itself so I don't want to lay track too far and then have to move it.

Main line connected

Right on time (according to my prediction of two weeks ago) I've finally got the main line laid from the throat of the lower yard to the top of the hill, and then down the helix.  All that remains is to lay the staging yard track (plus of course all the industrial track, two yards, and logging branch line). Budget prevents the acquisition of the quantity of switches required for the yards and industrial areas for a few more months, but the staging area and some sidings can hopefully be done this weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Mainline cork complete

I actually managed to finish laying all of the cork for the entire main line tonight. Further progress on laying track is hindered by 4 turnouts I'm waiting for my local hobby shop to get in stock. I'm told they should be here by the end of the week (Thursday if I'm lucky). So I guess tomorrow's task is to figure out where the logging branch subroadbed should go.

Construction: mainline subroadbed complete

Yes, I'm still here. I had to take a 2-month hiatus, so not much has progressed since last update, but now it's time to continue!

In this first shot, you can see the helix is complete (5 levels) and half capped with plywood for the lumber mill / helper turning yard. The rest of the plywood cap is on the floor ready to be placed.

Here's a shot a few days later with most of the cork laid out for the lumber mill yard.

That area is quite high off the ground (just below eye level for me) and from there the as-yet-unlaid lumber branch should gain another 6" or so of elevation, so I put in a raised floor to keep everything enjoyably viewable.

Due to a previous re-alignment of Marshall Hill, my original track plan for this area no longer fits, so I've had to scale it back a little; this is what the plan looks like now.

There are two major bridges that for now exist as bare subroadbed hanging in space, but will be replaced with more bridge-looking structures once the scenery starts to take shape.

As of tonight I have all of the subroadbed laid for the main line. The logging branch line, the paper mill complex, and the main yard are all 0% done. I have about 70% of the mainline cork laid, and about 50% of the track. If all goes according to plan, I hope to have the entire main line track laid by the end of the week, except for the staging yard, which will probably take another week. Soon after I want to rough in the logging branch (subroadbed at least). The I guess I need to start wiring so I can start running trains, right? :)

First train!

I ran my first train on the new layout last night :)

If you come from another layout, it's about as unexciting as you can get, but it's the first time I've had a layout working well enough to run a train any distance at all since July 2002, so I'm pretty excited.

The train was simply this Life-Like / Mantua 2-6-6-2T in Canadian Forest Products colours, along with 5 assorted cars from the cheap table at recent train shows.  This locomotive is one of two DC locos I have, since I don't yet have my DCC system (I'm planning on getting an NCE PowerCab next month). In fact, I don't even have a proper DC power pack; I used an old industrial beast of a power supply (0-20VDC, 20A capacity) but it worked well enough to run the train. Simply swap the wires to reverse :)

I'm please to report no derailments or other track issues throughout the entire 48-foot (each way) run; forwards uphill and backwards downhill. No feeders run yet, just a pair of alligator clips at the end of the first rails and worked fine through 16 sections of flextrack (soldered joints on curves, which is 95% of the main line). This is the longest run between turnouts (which won't be soldered to adjacent track), excepting the helix.

Construction: laying track

Finally I get to lay some track!  The distilled wisdom of the Internet has told me that nailing is bad, gluing is better, and gluing with caulking is the best. Transparent caulk is what I see recommended most often (so it's not unsightly if it peeks through the ballast), but I noticed some nice gray caulk at Rona (again, same DAP Alex+ brand) for the same price as the clear/white/almond/brown colours. I don't know what they put in it, but I found that the 300mL tubes of white-becomes-translucent and gray caulking are significantly different in weight. Indeed, the scale reveals: clear = 350g (12.3oz) whereas gray = 469g (16.5oz). I assume the differing ingredients make the gray caulking that much nicer to spread. For laying track I run a bead up each cork half-strip (approximately under where each rail will go) and then with a cheap putty knife spread it out into a smooth thin layer (1mm [~1/32"] is all you need). Just like icing a cake. Once the caulking is spread out thin and smooth, just plop the track on top if it and press down gently. The caulk is sufficiently sticky to keep the track in place with minimal clamping.

Backing up a bit; before getting to the sticking-it-down part, I first lay out 3-4 sections of flextrack at a time along the roadbed, pinned and/or clamped in place temporarily, then cut the rail ends as needed to fit the curves. Once satisfied with the alignment, I solder the rail ends together, but I don't solder in the curve -- I clamp the the end of the first track a few inches back from the end and let it straighten naturally, then attach the next section of track tangent to the end. This way both rail joints will be soldered perfectly straight and can then be bent into the curve. Attempting to solder in a curve is a great way to get kinked joints.

My soldering technique is far from perfect (as is my equipment), but what I do is clamp some alligator clips to the rail on either side of the joint as a heatsink, then apply the iron to rail+joiner on the outside of the rail and melt a small bit of rosin-core solder into the space between the rail joiner and the base of the rail. As soon as that melts, I take off the iron and blow it cool (to avoid melting ties). Then repeat on the other half of the joint. Once both rails are tinned, a third application of the iron blends the solder across the joint (if it wasn't already) and smooths out the appearance.  I only solder on the outside of the joint to avoid any potential bumps and lumps where the wheels will roll.

At the end of the first day of tracklaying I have 33 feet of mainline down, from the yard, around the base of Marshall Hill and almost leading into the curve on the outside of the second level of the helix.

Atlas flextrack (SuperFlex 83) revisions

Apparently Atlas HO scale flextrack (specifically their code 83 Super Flex-83) has revisions. I happened to have two pieces side by side and noticed minor differences between what appears to be revisions "A" and "C".

On the underside of the track the most noticeable difference is the webbing between the ties. On "A" it is as wide as the base of the rail; on "C" it is about half as thick.  The writing has also been reformatted a bit, but the only notable change is the revision letter. The other noticeable difference is the tie thickness has changed: on "A" each tie is 2.35mm (0.0925" = 8" scale), on "C" it is 2.20mm (0.0866" = 7.5" scale). A minor difference to be sure, but it can definitely be seen when they're side by side.

The other, odder difference is on the top side. The spike detail has changed. Where it gets weird is that on one side of the track the spike detail got finer. "A" spikes are 0.75mm wide (0.0295" = 2.6" scale), but on "C" one side has finer 0.6mm (0.0236" = 2.0" scale) spikes, but the other side has clunky 0.95mm (0.0374" = 3.25" scale) spikes!

For comparison, the spikes on the classic Atlas code 100 flextrack are a massive 1.75mm (0.0689" = 6" scale) on 3.4mm (0.1339" = 11.7" scale) ties).

Has anyone else noticed this?  Any idea why they did that?  Of note, the finer spike detail is on the fixed rail and the coarser spike detail is on the sliding rail.

05-Dec-2010 update: I found some revision "B" track in my collection. It looks superficially similar to "A" track, I haven't bothered to pull out the calipers to see if any of the dimensions differ, but they look very close. I have attached a scan of both top and bottom for reference.