Progress Report 2

The new switch and turntable lead are just about finished. Once again, a big thank you to Tyler for his hard work in getting the track-work perfect. This man is incredible and his attention to detail and desire to get things absolutely right in astounding. Right down to the point where, when just about finished with one of the switches. He looks at it, and goes "I think the ties could be made better."...and the rips the whole thing out and starts again. Along with the new turntable lead and the new switch, work continues on laying the two shop tracks, as well as the roundhouse wing tracks. We've been using a product Tyler had on hand called Age-it-Easy-Brown to stain the ties black. India ink and dye could work. One just has to be sure that it is not waterproof otherwise it will mix with the tie paint.

Before this project, I sort of always looked at hand-laying track as one of the more complex processes of model railroading. Once a modeler moves beyond the "it's a model railroad and I don't care about anything but trains running in circles" level, track becomes a model. Not talking about "Rivet Counting" but just trying to convey more of a depiction of a railroad over a train set. Compromise always is necessary because of the available resources, and the effect of scale.

The usual method that we have landed upon is to use a small pair of pliers and Micro Engineering Company medium spikes. Tyler owns a Micro-mark spiker that has a cutting head designed for the head of the spike to slip into a "T" shaped slot. I always tend to lose a few spikes here and there, but he's a human spike laying machine. We try to spike every 5th or 6th tie on both rails when doing hand laid track. More around switches and on curves. Between the two of us, we have a bunch of track gauges acquired over the years but an NMRA gauge is used as a final check. 

Track built on an old diorama. Hopefully, the end product will look similar.

Pro Tip: Run a bead of glue along the underside of the first rail with a toothpick and then lay it in place. Put in a few spikes along its length. On straight track, use a metal ruler to keep the rail positioned on the ties where you want it. Once in place, slowly run a soldering iron along the top of the rail to quickly set the glue. If you have too much glue on the rail you can use acetone to thin it. I'm told nail polish remover will also work. We haven't tried that.

At this point, over 80% of the track work for Marceline shops is done. With the final tasks being the roundhouse tracks, and the turntable whiskers. The turntable continues to be a source of annoyance, with the motor idea being cast completely out the window. For the moment, the turntable will be turned by hand, but if this means a hand-crank or just reaching in with a finger and spinning it "Armstrong" style has yet to be determined. 

Another ProTip: Keep a magnet nearby. You can sweep it along the track to pick up any loose spikes or filing shavings.

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Other projects are moving along briskly. For the ashpit, a hoist and working deck were constructed from basswood left over from other projects. Inside the pit will be two iron boxes. Once full of ash, these can be hoisted up, and a gondola slid underneath them for disposal.

Once complete, the model was painted "dark camouflage brown" from a rattle-can, and then a light dry-brushing of earth brown brought the grain out and highlighted detail on the crane and deck. 

Dumping the fire and cleaning out the ashpan will be one of the many tasks to be preformed at Marceline shops, as will removing ash from the pit. Modeling a locomotive service facility gives the chance to emulate things not normally seen on a model railroad. Eventually I would like to add a small smoke generator to the ashpit to full it with smoke as a fire gets "dumped".