Trackwork

With a lot of the roadbed laid, we are now laying track. I am using Atlas's code 55 track. I really like the look of the turnouts and the height of the track. In the past I have used Peco's code 55 track. Some people claim that Peco track looks more European, though I cannot really see it. The biggest advantage of the Peco track is that the rail extends down into the ties. You cannot see this, but it does make the track stronger and the old Micro-Trains wheels do not bounce on the ties as they do with the Atlas code 55. I will just be changing my wheel sets to low profile wheels.

When using the atlas code 55 track on the Woodland Scenics foam road bed, you need to be careful not to put any weight on the track (so don't lean on it). If you do, you will force a vertical curve into the rails. This can usually be bent back by sliding a small lever under the ties and then lifting while holding the adjacent rail down.

We are gluing the track down using Elmer's rubber cement. Just brush it on and hold the track down for a few seconds while it grabs.

On thing I do that is unusual is to stagger the rails when connecting up flex track. I slide one rail back so that it is an inch or two shorter than the rail with the ties attached to it. I then cut out about 4 ties where the shorter rail is, and two ties off the longer rail. On the next piece of track I slide the rail out from the ties, then thread this rail through the ties of the piece I just laid. I personally believe that this helps eliminate kinks in the rail on curves. Dan puts up with my whims and just keeps laying track.

We solder most of the joints together. We leave some unsoldered to allow for expansion. We do not solder joints on switches in case we want to rescue them someday.

In order to lay the track on the hill we had to build two bridges. The easier one was the stone viaduct that runs over the wye. This is just a bunch of Atlas viaduct kits. They go together easy. To finish them you need to use putty to fill in the gaps between the sections. Once the putty is dry, sand it down and carve in the gaps between the stones. I then painted it gray and then Pete applied a black wash and dry brushed it with some white paint.
The more complex bridge is a double track steel trestle. I bought a Micro Engineering single track trestle, and some of their steel bridge girders and started kit bashing. Paul and I put together all of the girder bridges. I then took one of the trestles and cutoff the top two bents and assembled the bottom portion of the trestle. This left a new top bent that was wide enough for the double track. Paul built another bent to match. Once this was done, I made some wide girders from sheet styrene to support the bridges. I glued these to the top of the trestles. I assembled this on a piece of 3/4" wood as we will need to remove the bridge at some point to paint the back drop. The bridge is mounted on small concrete posts (more styrene) and a sheet of styrene on each end which will form part of the abutments. The track on the bridge is Micro Engineering's code 55 bridge flex track which matches the height of the Atlas code 55 track.

We will be laying track for quite some time to come.