Corner Area Cork and Track Laying
I'm working on laying track and cork roadbed in this corner of my layout,...planning stage here
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/35353?page=4#comment-450454
I pulled that whole corner deck section out and placed it up on my center aisle deck
I then proceeded to get my twin mainline track plan curves finalized, along with several spur tracks/turnouts leading off of them, including my cement silo. I did this while making use of my paper template, then verifying all the radi, clearances, and fit of the various turnouts together. This was all tacked/pinned down on paper template that was taped down onto the plywood deck.
Now I needed to glue the cork roadbed down in preparation for the track gluing at the next stage. BUT how do I get that roadbed down in the exact correct position while removing that paper template from under it? This process of removing the paper template plan while not having the drawing on the wood deck has been a concern of mine for some time.
I decided that to get all the track and turnout proportions correct as I now had them laid out I should go ahead and solder all those connections together so I could subsequently lay this back down on my cork roadbed in the identical manner.
I got out a metal punch/scribe and made consecutive punch holes along the centerline of the tracks. Then when I razor cut out the paper template under each of those sections, I ended up with a series of 'dots' I could connect with a pencil line,...the centerline of my track. I could then lay and glue down each side of my split cork roadbed to that line,...and end up with the split line on my cork defining the proper centerline for my pre-assemblied track to be glue down to.
Paper template section with punch holes cut out and laid aside,..
Punch holes in plywood deck (hard to see all the holes)
Pencil lines for track centers
Cork laying track-by-track, and subsequent removable of more sections of paper template,..
Finally most of the cork roadbed laid here except for some of the turnout locations that will be done today.