Always good to get another opinion.......

Evening all, my previous post was as a result of getting some excellent feedback. Many thanks Shelton.

After having constructed all the formwork for the branch and feeling pretty happy with myself I commenced laying track. I too had concerns with the curving nature of the alignment so stopped work and moved onto (hence the subject of my previous post) something else while I pondered fate.

original plan without the piece of ply clamped in position

The plan was to have some hills and valleys, in which the branch deviates from the mainline through, before reaching the ballast siding and then onto the openess and remainder of the branch.

I tend to think things through for far to long which can cause periods of inactivity or I will just move onto something else.

The weather has been great of late with pleasant days and I rather enjoy being outside than in. I am currently adding an extension on the side of the shed. This 3.6m by 12m extension will give me somewhere to park the horse float, trailers and tractor but more importantly will shelter the side of the trainroom from the afternoon sun, but I digress, sorry Bill.

With this shift in layout construction times to evenings and the roadbed alignment drama I moved onto planning the station area. This is where the branchline junctions from the main. Originally this was to be a "beyond the basment" part of the layout but with further investigation it would lead to another operational aspect.

The concept now for those just tunning in is that trains come from staging into the station and then shunt the various sidings and others are made up and then take the branch, others might commence there journey and then return.

There was no point making one up in my head and I thought it would be easier to modify the prototype for my location. Below are so planning ideas.



I use paper templates and place various items around to get a feel, then leave it for a while.

Although the benchwork appears quite narrow there is enough room to allow for easy acess to rollingstock.

The results are in!!!! 



As can be seen the end result is different to the planning. Even as we speak the double slip has been removed.

Every section of track has a length of wire soldered to it and the bus, a tedious job but one that will pay off in years to come.

I only strip the bus wire and wrap the dropper around it then solder

I have had the chance to test all the trackwork in dc mode and am happy with my results. The Procab was next tested while this area of trackwork was still isolated and it too preformed well.

All the trackwork is now in place including the staging. There is now only about 3 metres of track that needs to be laid.

Ahhh why stop there, it will be a while before I get a chance to fight with Blogger again.

Yes, I came to the conclusion that there were too many curves and decided to straighten them out.

The end result with the old roadbed still inplace but track to the new alignment. The turnout leads to the ballast siding.

The golden spike ceremony is only days away. All the branch will be laid with only a few sidings to complete as customers sign up there agreements.

I can feel a few beers and a sausage sizzle coming on!!!!!!

Until next time.