Southern Pacific's Jefferson Branch

[ratled]

The great escape

How do you fit what should have been 20' of RR in a 12' space? With selective compression of the selective compression. One of things that was always planned for this area was the use of a fold down section of track at the end of the turnout coming out of the siding for the locos to escape so they can run around to the back of the train. This small section of track, coupled with the crossover in the middle of the siding, is what allows the Siskiyou area to be effectively switched.

The fascia for this area had to go in first. It's 9” tall, as it will be throughout. I duct taped a couple of angle brackets to it when installing it so it would be flush with the surface of the foam base.



The folding shelf is 3/4” plywood and a pair of brackets from Amazon. These are very stable and have a positive lock. The handles make it easy to stow back.  In the off chance anyone needs a set, here are the ones I used......   Amzon Brackets HERE





For track alignment I soldered on a pair of track joiners to the layout side. I nipped the inside wall on the receiving side of the joiners and opened that up flat to make an L on each side. I installed the escape track with the shelf in the up position and let the glue dry over night. The connection is tight enough to provide current to the track just from the rail joiners but it will get a dedicated power lead. I glued a couple of dowels along the tracks to protect the rail when in it's normal position. Once the area has been given a through shake down and determined to be bomb proof it will get painted black. For now I don't want to hide any issues under paint.







Trains get run almost every day but Jefferson hasn't been run in while with Siskiyou up and running. I tweak things on track and trains as I go and still need to convert the Siskiyou area TOs from the ground throws to over spring. I also cobbled a switch list template together so I can at least I have some kind of paperwork.