New On30 Layout.


I thought that Micro Mark has a special tool for closing Suit Cas Connectors that is very expensive! Now I ca't find that tool. I bought a Brass Lined Parallel Jaw Pliers that I though would work; but, the jaws don't open up enough.
 
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I couldn't find the receipt for these, but it seems like they were around $12, $15 when I got them in 2015, no were as pricy as the Klein wire strippers.
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I've been building Fast Tracks Bull Frog Switch machines and a few other items from Fast Tracks lately. I have mounted my first hand built turnout to my layout, mounted a Bull Frog under it to actuate the points and am wiring up the micro switch on the Bull Frog to power the turnouts frog! I finally feel like I'm having fun and now it's time to leave the basement and enjoy the warm weather.

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We've been attempting to sell Screamer for two years and it hasn't happened yet. I think the Virus situation may have affected the process. This will go in the water on May 23rd.
 
You'll like these, they make crimping fast, and ya don't have to sweat a bad crimp with pliers.

I'll throw this in here since I had mentioned them earlier...... Klein wire strippers, $30.00 a few years ago.
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I used these quite a bit hooking up turn-out indicator wires to the bus line.

I like the Bullfrog machines, I have many, they serve my purpose well! (Don't forget to wax the lever arm!) 👍

Screamer is looking sleek!⛵
 
NICE LOOKING Boat there, ASH PIT! What length? and where is it going to water? Was not aware that you were close?
My son has a 34' Catalina in Port Humene (if I spelled that correctly)

How do you like the Fast tracks switch building?
 
Sirfoldalot, The boat is Mirage 27 and is closer to 28 feet in length. Screamer will be Craned into the water on May 23 and into Leech Lake, about 30 miles from where I live.

Fast Tracks Turnout jigs make building turnouts easy. But, follow the correct building sequence.
 
I am wiring the two storage tracks that I have laid down, so far. I am also about ready to hand lay some track that is apart of the new layout and passing through my one hand laid turnout. This track leads to the next Turnout that is a curved Left Hand #6 and I'm not sure I'm ready to do a curved Turnout and don't want to buy a Jig for building one. I have found one problem when going from my Atlas Brand Flex Track to hand laid track. That is that the two don't line up correctly. The hand laid tracks ties are thicker and therefore the hand laid track is higher by .060 or close to 1/16th of an inch. It's interesting that this fact is never mentioned in Fast Tracks literature! I am tending to believe that Fast Tracks took their Tie dimensions from actual Railroad Tie dimensions and that Atlas looked at Tie dimensions as only length and width and thickness could be what they felt to be visually good enough. Because ties will be buried in ballast, the tie's thickness did not matter. I have never worked with any other manufacturers track. So, a question for everyone is: Does Atlas, Bachmann, Micro Engineering and other Manufacturers track match up, is the thickness of the track from the bottom of the ties, to the top of the rails the same with all manufacturers? My guess is that it does. Otherwise, we'd be hearing complaints that I have never heard.
 
So, I had to do some head scratching to come up with a fix for this. Of the three tracks that my sector plate matches up to, the two going to storage are Atlas Flex Track. Only the Hand Laid Track coming out of storage is .060 higher. I thought that maybe I should file the rail down. However taking .060 from Code 100 would only leave rail that is .040 thick. This is not work able. Since the hand laid Turnout had already been glued in place, I could not sand the track bed down .060. I also though that maybe I should raise the ends of the two Atlas Flex Track storage tracks up .060. This would have worked. Then it dawned on me that I could place a small piece of material .060 thick, under the end of the sector plate, at the location of the Hand Laid Track. This is what I ended up doing.

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You can see the three holes in the MDF used for aligning the tracks in the photo above and in the photo below you can see the pin I use for alignment.

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This fix has worked perfectly, so it's onward to wiring up the tracks that are in place now.
 
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Selling Inventory via Hattons.
This topic was brought up in my New On30 Layout thread; however, I thought that it should maybe be a stand alone topic, so I have moved it to General Discussions topic.
 
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Again, this topic was brought up in my New On30 Layout thread; however, I thought that it should maybe be a stand alone topic, so I have moved it to here.
 
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Again, this topic was brought up in my New On30 Layout thread; however, I thought that it should maybe be a stand alone topic, so I have moved it to here.
 
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I am finding that my On30 Fast Tracks turnouts are far superior to all my old HO Atlas Turnouts on the old layout. I have not used Shinohara, Peco, Micro-Engineering. Bachmann or any other Turnouts than Atlas, so can't compare them to Fast Tracks. The Fast Tracks turnouts I have built so far are left hand #6 using the Fast Tracks Assembly Fixture and a left hand #6 Curved using Fast Tracks Laser Cut Twist Tie Turnout blank. I have built these two turnouts using solid points (no hinge, as the closure rails and points are one and the same continuous piece of rail). There will never be a loss of continuity between the closure rail and point rail with this system, as happened so often with my Atlas turnouts as time passed. Also the frog is built so tight that my wheels don't fall into the groove between the Frog Point and closure/wing rails, the way they did on my old HO Atlas Turnouts. Also, I am enjoying the process of building these Turnouts and hand laying my track!
 
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I am working on another left hand #6 Curved Turnout. The Fast Tracks Twist Ties for this turnout were damaged in transit and so this one is a bit more difficult to build. I would say it is more like building a turnout from scratch. The two Curved Turnouts are end to end with each other forming a yard run around and a lead for the yard that will have two more Fast Tracks fixture built #6 Turnouts and a turntable lead.
 
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My Kitwood Hill Models 11.5 inch diameter On30 Turntable is supposed to be delivered to me tomorrow (Wednesday, May 26th) Kitwood Hill Models is a British manufacturer of Structures, On30 Freight Cars, Steamboats and Turntable kits. I watched David Popp from Model Railroader build one of these kits and was very intrigued with the kit, so I ordered one. Simon Cox, the owner of Kitwood Hills is very easy to work with and from what I saw with David Popp's build of his Turnatble, I'm looking forward to this project. It will build into a Jack Armstrong type Gallows Turntable made from wood, so should fit right in with my Logging Railroad.
 
Not much progress being made lately. We spend four days at the lake and three at home here. With the lawn mowing and other stuff needing doing when I'm home I don't get much time to work on the layout. Still waiting on the Turntable to arrive. Simon Cox the guy who owns Kitwood Hills has assured me that the transit time from Great Briton to Minnesota is still to short to do a trace yet. It seems that everything in my hobby today boils down to my being patient and despite Willie's thoughts on my lack of patients, I am a very patient person, although probably not so much when it comes to dealing with people!
 
I have purchased a Broadway Limited Inc. 2-8-0 C-16 with sound. This loco looks most like a Colorado Southern Locomotive so I am considering making my Main Line C&S and the branch will be the Peep River Logging Company. However, I may not pay any attention to where the read C&S operated, other than Colorado. I've always liked C&S's Bear Trap Cinder collectors and this is the impetus for going Colorado & Southern.
 



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