09-12-2010, 08:45 AM
Hello everyone. Well I've fianlly finished this project. It was a very frustrating experience! The month of August was just brutally hot, and even though the basement is usually a nice option for escaping that, this year it was very uncomfortable. The humidity was at unprecedented heights, and the dehumidifier just couldn't keep up. I was emptying it every 10 hours or so, compared to the more usual 24, and it was still nasty. Much warmer than usual I suppose because the ground had warmed up so much. Plus, my eyes just aren't up to this work anymore. I'd put a spike in needlenose pliers and attempt to get in in the center of a tie, butted up against the base of a rail, and I couldn't see if I had it in the right place. Part of that was the shadow my hand caused. So I used clamp on lights for more light, which was fine but the heat from the light wasn't fun. So I would get aggravated and have to stop because the aggravation seemed to make me hotter and more uncomfortable. But I stuck with it, working perhaps 15 minutes at a time. Some pics:
Ties laid and ballasted, I've placed the point assembly in place. This is very weird, as the points are the last thing I build in my ordinary sequence of building turnouts.
And the points of the frog, they were tweaked a bit shortly after this pic
Ties laid and ballasted, I've placed the point assembly in place. This is very weird, as the points are the last thing I build in my ordinary sequence of building turnouts.
And the points of the frog, they were tweaked a bit shortly after this pic