Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Wordless Wednesday #81

P&WV 1102 a 2-6-6-4 with a Pennsy style Belpaire firebox at Rook Yard, PA 1951, William Poellot photo

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Wordless Wednesday #80

A family trip to the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio managed to combine fun and trains. We took several trips on the steam powered narrow gauge Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad to unwind from the shock of riding their monster rollercoasters.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Wordless Wednesday #79

P&WV Caboose 802 at Mingo Jct, OH
Pittsburgh & West Virginia engines and cabooses could be found on trains running through the P&WV's connection with the Wheeling at Pittsburgh Junction to Brewster yard. The P&WV's line over the W&LE and the Ohio River at Mingo Junction was another location one could find their equipment on a interchange track that connected the two lines.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Not So Wordless Wednesday #78

Just to build on last week's Wordless Wednesday, here's the rest of building that curved #8 turnout.

Special thanks to Tim Moran for letting me borrow his Fast Tracks #8 Pointform tool. Also thanks again to Tim and Jeff for burying me in puns in last weeks comments..

Using the Fast Tracks #6 switch fixture gave me a lot of confidence to try building one of the odd ball turnout sizes I'll need for the trackwork in Adena and other areas. And what better way to build my first "fixture free" turnout than to tackle a right hand curved #8 30"/24" radius switch.

Just like the other turnouts I've built, I cut and shaped all the rail pieces I would need first as seen in last week's Wordless Wednesday #77. This meant I finally got to try out the home made rail bender I built a couple months ago specifically for the curved turnouts.

Home made rail bender.
To help hold the copper PC board ties down to the template while soldering the rails, I used clear double sided tape. I then started soldering one of the stockrails down following the printed template.

Working the outside.
I'll admit without a Fast Tracks template to work from I was quickly at a loss for what to do next. I thought working on one route at a time to keep everything in gauge seemed like a good plan. Using a couple of code 70 Micro Engineering track gauges I worked on the main route then down the diverging route.

Keeping it in gauge.
Engrossed in soldering, or overcome by the fumes, the next thing I knew the turnout was pretty much complete! Building my first curved turnout was easier than I imagined it would be, but it wasn't without a few hiccups.

I did have a couple of tight spots that I needed to readjust the stockrail position in spots. I also could've notched the stockrails a bit longer to clear point rails a bit more. I'll need to go back an fix that up with a thin file. A test wheel set proved however that in the end my turnout should be operationally sound!

Finished!
Before I thought hand-laying turnouts seemed like black magic, but now I see how silly it is to think "I could never do that" when you've never really tried. It isn't as hard as thought it would be. Although the tools do help :)