Fluesheet's Shelf Layout

[Fluesheet]

Hi.

A few months back, I asked for some advice on a shelf layout I was mounting on the back of my workbench:

<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2574">viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2574</a><!-- l -->

I got some fantastic feedback from some of the great guys on this forum: steinjr, shortliner, brakie, Russ Bellinis and others. Thanks for the time guys!

The final plan looked (and remains) like this:


The entire build gallery is here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396">http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396</a><!-- m -->

And the current state (as of 6/5/10) is this:


More later!

[Fluesheet]

Getting started.

The key hurdle (mostly mental!) that would have to be cleared before getting started were the crossings. I chose to hand lay these on a template I printed from the Fast Tracks
(<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.handlaidtrack.com/HO-14-Crossing-Printable-Track-Template-p/tt-ho-x-19.htm">http://www.handlaidtrack.com/HO-14-Cros ... o-x-19.htm</a><!-- m -->), and they came out looking very nice, but required some love with a file to really work well.
The build gallery for the crossing is here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p1058566081">http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p1058566081</a><!-- m -->


Once these were complete, I was confident that the rest was possible.

Shelf cut and CadRail plan printed and attached:


I started laying track on the less-complex left end, using turnouts that I had built a month or so before. The track in the foreground are Central Valley Model Works "Branchline" ties (#2002) that were used as-is. These were spiked through the tie every 10th tie or so. The spiking required pilot holes in the tie to prevent the tie from splitting, and the spike themselves had to have their heads trimmed, so it became a more tedious task than I'd expected.

The middle track's ties are Central Valley's #2003 ties - mainline 8'6" ties. These were too closely spaced on the strip, so I ended up cutting these into groups of twos and threes to spread them out and give a "lighter duty" look.

Notice that part of the plan is torn up - I found that "humps" caused by the seams where sheets of paper were taped were causing problems if turnout points were located over them, so up it came - getting the paper out from underneath the spiked spur was a real pain!




Build Gallery:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396">http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396</a><!-- m -->

More Later!

Matt

[shortliner]

Matt, Really glad the trackplan is working out for you - certainly looking good so far
Best
Jack aka shortliner

[Gary S]

I've never built any turn-outs or cross-overs so i am always impressed when I see someone doing that. You're off to a wonderful start on a nice switching layout. Definitely kkep us informed of your progress.

Looking good!

[Brakie]

Matt,Looking good there..


By all means keep us updated..Please!

[nachoman]

great work on the trackwork!

[Fluesheet]

I'm using the layout to test different construction techniques and products, one of those being turnouts.

One is the Fast Tracks turnouts seen in my previous post.

The second is a hybrid Central Valley and Fast Tracks method. This gives more detail than the standard Fast Tracks result (tie plate detail and the like), but has the very smooth running of the solid point rails that Fast Tracks uses. I credit Joe Fugate and his Siskouyou line forum for the idea. I used the Fast Tracks fixture to form parts, but what's nice about the Central Valley ties is that they can be used as a fixture of sorts themselves - the tie plates locate the rail.

Fast Tracks fixture used as a template for the turnout parts.


Stock rails temporarily in place on Central Valley Ties while locating the turnout. Once located, the ties were temporarily spiked so they would keep their alignment while several are removed. The ties marked with an "x" will be replaced with PC board






This is a pretty straight forward method, with the most tedious part being removal of some of the closure rail tie detail to allow the solid points to swing freely - Central Valley's tie blocks are intended to be used with hinged points.

The third turnout type I'm experimenting with is also a Fast Tracks product - the Twist Ties. After building the hybrids, I lost interest in the Twist Ties and built this turnout simply because I had it - and I'm glad I did. These are very cool, and much more fun to build than I expected. It's like handlaying, but cheating! It's actually the smoothest over the frog of any turnout I've constructed - I attribute this to gaining experience, but also to the ability to move rails around until you get the perfect frog. It's more forgiving in that manner than soldering. I like the look - I'm old enough that I grew up looking at MR mag when handlaying was the "gold standard". I guess that aesthetic has stuck with me! Full disclosure - I used the Fast Tracks tools to form the frog points and point rails (same as the hybrid above).



Build Gallery:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396">http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396</a><!-- m -->

More Later!

Matt

[Trucklover]

Progress is looking good Matt!! Keep up the great work, cant wait to see some structures and scenery!

[Russ Bellinis]

One additional factor in favor of Joe's method of making turnouts using the Central Valley tie strips its that the CV tie strips can be bent to for curved turnouts.

[P5se Camelback]

I've never built any turn-outs or cross-overs so i am always impressed when I see someone doing that. You're off to a wonderful start on a nice switching layout. Definitely kkep us informed of your progress. Looking good!

Gary (and others too, I'm not just picking on you, Gary!) The first time I ever layed any track by hand was when I gave a clinic in a hobby shop I managed on "How to hand Lay Track," and, being only a 32" lnog piece of straight track, the session went well. I mean, really! Glue down ties, get two pieces of rail, a bag of spikes, a tool to push the spikes in with and a couple (three) track guages. Easy peasy! The Session was a success! [I sold many budles or rail and bags of ties and spikes because of it!]

When I decided to build my own layout, I just started gluing down ties ... and this time I made "xerox" copies of some templates of turnouts and glued them down first, Then glued down Campbell Profile ties, trimmeds ome turnout ties to length, took a piece of rail and just cut/filed/fit/filed/fit/soldered/spiked my way through the turnout and kept on going. Yeah, that first one took the better part of an evening, but cars roll through it like a pat of butter on syrup sitting on top of hot pancakes! SLICK!! First time! But I took my time on that first one to make sure it was right. There were no kits, no special tools ... just a article in Model Railroader (by Tony Koester, if I recall correctly) and the desire to do it. I have not spent a penny on RTR track since then!

Seriously, it is not tough! At this point I "get lost in it" once I get started ... and I find it relaxing! But don't ask what number my turnouts are ... I couldn't tell you ... I just build my way through them when I get there.

The point is ... YOU CAN DO IT! Just give it a try!

[Fluesheet]

P5 makes a good point - just try. And while he and I arrived at that conclusion through different methods, the end result is still "wow, I can do this". Those crossings were built with nothing but confidence and straight pins to form a fixture so that all my frog points were the same (there's a bunch).

A template, track gauges, NMRA gauge and track supplies (rail, wood or PC board ties, spikes or solder) and give it a go!

Russ, good point about the curvability of he Central Valley ties - another reason I'm somewhat fascinated with them. Lots of angles to choose from as well (although not as many as P5 can make!).

Matt Goodman

[doctorwayne]

Nice work, Matt. I especially like your hybrid turnout using the CV tie strip and it's very much what I plan to do when I get around to building that second level of my layout. The CV ties have the detail that's lacking from handlaid track, but still allow, within reason, turnouts built-to-fit with the smoothness afforded by handlaying.

Wayne

[Gary S]

Matt, biL, I appreciate the encouragement, but at this point, I'm way too far into the layout to start handlaying now. I am certain that the handlaid ones are much better though, and I'm hoping that viewing this post doesn't prompt me to give it a try! I am anxious to get trains running asap.

[P5se Camelback]

It's all good, Gary! Maybe at some point you'll build a diarama/photographic module that you can take out doors and photograph in natural light and for that you can try your hand at spiking rail by hand (This, he says, having at this point a layout that exists only on Canary Tracing!) Hey! Cut that out! This is no laughing matter!

[Fluesheet]

With this still-far-from-complete shelf layout, I continue to be amazed (and delighted!) with how much ~6 square feet of layout has taught me.

This post covers my journey through the world of....

TIES!

Track System
So far I've been using Central Valley tie strips for all non-turnout trackwork. (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cvmw.com/cvt/index.htm">http://www.cvmw.com/cvt/index.htm</a><!-- m -->). These are (loosely) flex track without rail .

The tie strips are molded from black styrene plastic in one foot lengths, with a single web holding everything together. The web is about half the height of the ties which will make it easy to hide with ballast. It's also super flexible - I've bent them down to a 6" radius (without rail) with no problems.

One feature I found cool is that the strips are designed to be joined one to another to create a single string of ties as long as you wish. I suspect that this will make it easier to lay very smooth trackwork, with natural easments and such. The feature is nicely implemented via half-thickness ties on either end of the strips; one end has the bottom half of a tie with two small indexing holes, the other end has the top half of a tie, with two indexing pins on it's underside. Apply styrene cement, align the indexing holes and pins, and off you go!

They produce three styles:
· 2001 Mainline Ties - These model 9' ties on about 21-22" centers. Too long for my '30's steam era layout (but I used them anyway...).
· 2002 Branchline Ties - These model 8' ties on approximately 26" centers. Perfect for my industry spurs
· 2003 8'6" Mainline Ties - These are on 19-20" centers and are 6" shorter than the 2001 ties (more appropriate for my era), they also include rail clamp (anti-creeper) detail.

What I've learned

This post covers the methods I experimented with to attach the ties to the subroadbed. I've tried five different methods:

1. Drops of white glue between ties that have already been located

· Pluses - expedient
· Minuses - Messy and didn't self level as much as I'd hoped, so the dried glue film / blobs remained near the top of the tie, though nothing that can't be covered by ballast. A slightly diluted glue might work better with this techique (to help it settle a bit). Since white glue doesn't bond to styrene, it won't be tolerate rough handling.

2. Styrene Cement dabbed onto the ends of each tie (CVMW recommendation). The softened styrene bonds with the Homasote

· Pluses - Relatively quick, very solid, super easy to apply after the ties are where you want them. This is perfect for situations where for some reason you cannot apply the adhesive beforehand, and will work with any subroadbed.
· Minuses – Smells bad, can only be used with styrene ties (i.e. CVT).

3. Applying a bead of white glue before putting the ties down

· Pluses - Easy, seems solid so far.
· Minuses - Not tacky, so it requires anchoring the strip for alignment until the glue dries. I used spikes (see photo) to clamp the ties tightly to the Homasote until the glue dried.

4. Adhesive Caulk


· Pluses - No clamping needed to hold the ties in place - just plunk them down into a thin bed of caulk, and align as needed - it stays. Nice.
· Minuses - Messier than styrene glue.

5. Spiking: About every 10th tie was spiked - I think that is longer than what's considered best practice for wood tie handlaying, but the CVT tieplate detail seems to hold the rail in gauge between the spikes. We'll see.

· Pluses -
- Solid
- Very easy to disassemble into base components if needed
- Two for one - rail and ties are fastened at the same time.

· Minuses
- Pilot holes are required for the spikes to avoid splitting the tie. I drilled through one of the empty spike holes in the tie plates using, think, a #75 drill.
- The spike heads need to be shortened slightly so they don’t foul the rail web. This was time consuming.


Caulk is the current hot trend, and I can see why. I think this will be the the best process for laying long sections at a time, at least for me. I've become a big fan of the styrene glue method; it's perfect for spot use, or even longer runs where caulk can't be used for some reason. The only method I won't use again (except in a pinch) is dropping white glue between the ties. It works, but does nothing better than the other four.

A gallery can be found here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396">http://goodman312.zenfolio.com/p802892396</a><!-- m -->