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| With the basic baseboard construction complete, they have now been set up in the spare bedroom in the house so that more tracklaying can be done. |
The first job to do was to fix down the throat pointwork to the baseboard.Before doing that, I printed out another copy of the track plan at the baseboard edges to locate the brass woodscrews to which the rail ends would be soldered. This is the Down line joint at the right hand end of the right hand baseboard. |
The screws placed for the UP line and headshunt joints at the right hand end of the layout.The small section of track mounted on the foamboard is used to set the height of the screws. |
The same work being carried out at the other end of the right hand baseboard.Since I'm screwing into hardwood with brass screws, pilot holes are a must or you can shear the brass screws. I prefer to use a hand drill for this type of work - I can usually be a lot more accurate. |
And now a large leap in time :-)The throat has been positioned and the rail ends soldered to the brass screws. An Exacto razor saw is now used to trim the excess of the rail ends to coincide with the baseboard joint. |
Foamboard has been laid down on the other baseboard for the other trackwork, and work has started on the tracklaying.The clutter is fairly typical and is usually a lot worse :-). |
Copies of the trackplan have been stuck on top of the foamboard and the sleepers than stuck on top of that.The brass screws have been positioned and the rail nearest on the left hand board has been aligned to its mate on the right hand board and soldered to the screwhead
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You will note that chairs have been placed on every second sleeper on the rail nearest. This track is one of the platform roads and has quite a tight curve, therefore it will have a checkrail fitted.The checkrail chairs will be placed on the other sleepers which is an easy way of locating long checkrails and has mote than adequate strength. Cosmetic half chairs will be applied after the track is tested. |
Laying the other rail of the track.The lead weight is used to apply a small amount of pressure until the weld between the plastic chairs and the wooden sleepers has set - a matter of a minute or so. The vernier calipers are a temporary track gauge for the widened gauge for this radius of track - I haven't had a chance to make up a proper three point gauge as yet. |
Using a small toolmakers clamp to hold rail ends in alignment while the track "sets".It is of great help to pre-bend rails when laying curved track. It makes joint alignment much easier, and you're not fighting the spring in the rail when getting the track to stay in place while the welds "set". You can use a proper bending jig for the rail, but I do it by drawing the rail through my fingers which is quick and easy with Code 124 bullhead rail. I try to get joints to align properly without the help of fishplates or joiners, then add them later as "belt and braces". A joint under stress is liable to pop out of alignment sometime in the future. |
The checkrail fitted to the inner side of the curved road with the chairs on the alternate sleepers.
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A general view of the work so far, with the carriage siding having been laid as well. Next will be the loco road leading to the left from the tandem point in the foreground.Some effort has been made to tidy up the area, but not too successfully :-). |
At the start of June, all my spare time was taken up with building a layout for my grandson's birthday, to accommodate his huge collection of ERTL "Thomas and Friends" toys.However, work didn't completely stop on the layout and here's the latest state of affairs with the loco road having been completed and the trackbase and sleepers for the other platform road laid. I've also started work on the signalling and found out that I should really have trap points in the coach siding and the loco road, so a bit of modification will be required. |
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