Building "Clearwater Industries"

[clearwater]

Clearwater:
I didn't understand the link. It's been 48 years that I haven't German studied and I can't my Worterbuch find.
Is it something like a doughnut fastened around the knob?

"Our local hobby shop is building a layout and recessing the knobs on switch machines by drilling holes in the side boards.
There is another board tacked on behind that holds the rod. I haven't checked just how thick the board is."

By the way when you are talking about knobs: Do you think about something
like this: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.outbus.de/product.html">http://www.outbus.de/product.html</a><!-- m --> ?

David, there is no doughnut. There is a pushrod and a whole inside of the module front. The hole is
big enough to put 2 fingers in and get the knob - does this answer your question or did I understand
something different from what you meant? Then I should apologize for my bad English!

[clearwater]

Ckearwater,

Excellent ideas with good emboyment the reality! And very fine hand working! I think it's N-scale?

Bernhard, thank you for your paudit - I know how fine you work and enjoy your comments!
By the way - my finger is "fullscale" - not "N"

@all: thank you for reading my article and for your comments.
This encourages me to tell more about my operations.
"Building Clearwater Industries" is finished yet - but when is a model railroad finished?
I think NEVER!!!

Some more will happen to "Clearwater Industries" - stay tuned!

regards Thomas

[modelsof1900]

...

By the way - my finger is "fullscale" - not "N"

Great !!!

[clearwater]

Once upon a time a "miracle" happened ...

It was last year that my wife and I diskussed the future of our party room in
the basement - we declared it to become a stockroom. Everybody of us gets the
half room for his/her purposes - like a fairy tale I should get more space for my layout!

Great!

I went into my garage, cut wood and built new modules - Clearwater will extend!


















Regards Thomas

[clearwater]

Building new segments rose the wish in me for more slender turnouts than the ones
I used meanwhile. #4 turnouts are´nt very scale and in a larger layout they should disappear.
The former "timesaver" has lost it´s charm of the most important attribute of my modules!
I decided for #6 turnouts in the old segments - disruption followed ....
After that rebuilding the track was to do.



Only in the left corner was´nt enough space - I put a #5 turnout there - even better than #4!











All togehter the old two segments received 2 more turnouts than before.
In the left corner the turnout for the yard and in the right corner the turnout
for the new segment with the "John Deere Dealer".
Here are now 8 turnouts in a distance of 70" ... wow!

Regards Thomas

[tetters]

Just finished reading through this thread. Fantastic work. Thank you for sharing with us.

[clearwater]

Just finished reading through this thread. Fantastic work. Thank you for sharing with us.

thank you tetters!

With changing the turnouts all pushrods became obsolete because of the new positions
from frogs and tougues.
I had to decide between new pushrods or something completely new:
My friend Hardy inspired me to go a different way: (you should know he is an electronics engineer)
I learned how to program a micro controller to serve a servo instead of using a pushrod!
That took me several month - I think that I am a little familiar to these new interesting helpers
right now but it was a big effort to learn it!





for further information look here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en010211">http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/De ... e=en010211</a><!-- m -->

Regards Thomas[/quote]

[clearwater]

Several weeks later the layout is almost finished with a complete new electric.
Each turnout has got it´s own servo and it´s own control board.
I built a railway control center with LEDs to show how the turnouts lie.
It was a lot of soldering to reach this point and a lot of brainwork ...
Now we are almost in the present with my report.




Regards Thomas[/quote][/quote]

[clearwater]

After several mock ups I had the idea how to design the junction to the small yard
that I planed.
There will be a concrete Dealer with the name "OCP" = "Ordinary Concrete Products"
that sells tubes made of concrete (delivered on flat cars) and receives cement
in small hoppers, they unload at the blue box which is a substitute for a building.
Sand is supplied from the near shore with trucks.

Behind it there will raise the "Alegria Grain Mill" - thanks to Reinhard, your last idea
was a good inspiration for me.
the brown box with the red tape coveres the space for the main building.
Here the grain hoppers will be unloaded. The bottles stand for silos.
Here is enough space for 6 grain hoppers.

The module itself is constructed as a "duck under module".

The track in the middle directly leads into the small yard with 6 tracks.
It will become about 140" long (3,60m) and get additionally a small
container terminal covering two tracks.

This is my actual planning for the modules.







Regards Thomas[/quote]

[Tyson Rayles]

Very nice!

[clearwater]

Thank you Mike!

For expanding Clearwater I needed one more #5 turnout than I had at home.
I decided to build my first turnout for myself (never did it before - no guts no glory!).
I painted the sleepers on a sheet of paper and put it under glas.
I cut sleepers from a circuit board, fixed them with carpet tape (adhesive from both sides),
cut some rails and began welding.
Some two hours later my first turnout was finished.
It works very well - I am satisfied. Here is the result:












Regards Thomas[/quote][/quote]

[tetters]

Nice work on the turnout Thomas. I hand lay too so I can really appreciate the effort you put into it especially for your first time.

If I can offer some suggestions. It looks like you are using too much solder on the joints between the copper ties and the rail. It could be because you are using too big a tip on your soldering iron or the gauge of solder is too heavy. Without knowing what tools you used to build them I am only guessing these are the reasons. Try using a fine pencil tip on your soldering iron and use something like a Weller 35 watt iron. The solder diameter should be something around .15 gauge. I also use an acid based (plumber's) flux. While many here might object to using such an aggressive flux I see no reason not too if you are building on the bench. So long as you wash the residue off with some hot soapy water afterwards you don't have anything to worry about your joints getting corroded and failing. Painting the turnouts as soon as possible helps as well to prevent any oxidization at the joints.

Get your self an NMRA track gauge too. An immensely helpful tool whether you hand lay track or not.

I will also point to Tim Warris and the Fast Tracks website as his site, tools, and techniques are what got me started and his online videos and manuals are all free and incredibly helpful.

http://www.handlaidtrack.com/

Below is a curved # 6 I built for my layout.



Looking forward to seeing more from you!

Shane

[clearwater]

Nice work on the turnout Thomas. I hand lay too so I can really appreciate the effort you put into it especially for your first time.

If I can offer some suggestions. It looks like you are using too much solder on the joints between the copper ties and the rail. It could be because you are using too big a tip on your soldering iron or the gauge of solder is too heavy. Without knowing what tools you used to build them I am only guessing these are the reasons. ....

Looking forward to seeing more from you!

Shane

Shane thank you for your hints, I think I can learn from you.
The first reason for too much solder may be the lack of training - it was my first turnout.
I do use a weller WECP-20 soldering station with variable temperatures an 0.8mm solder with flux in it.
Your turnouts look great and thank you for the link. I drew all drafts for turnouts

Thomas

[clearwater]

There was to face an another challange: How to make the changeover in a curve.
Alignment pins should help to put the two segments together.
I made the experience that this might be the only way to get a reliable changeover
from any segment to another. It makes it comfortable when you often have to
assemble your layout as well - but that is a different story I will tell you some other time.
I soldered the rails to screws that I put 4mm from the gap and additionally ties to solder
the rails. I glued them with CA to the layout. I soldered the rails over the gap and cut them
after they were fixed with a small cutoff wheel. I think it fits perfectly and reliable.








Regards Thomas

[clearwater]

I Built a railroad crossing from scratch.
I used parcel tape which is used to be welded with a machine, (sorry, I do not have the
right vocabulary, may be someone can help me by viewing the pictures),
cut it into small stripes and glued it to the rails.
After that I plastered the road with tile glue. I simulated concrete boards by
cutting a small gap with a sharp knife all 5cm (about 2 inch).
This is the result from my operation:








Regards Thomas[/quote]