Hi rgeiter !Soooooooo… was not a good night tonight. Had a lot of movement in/on the layout. Fixed about 12 kinks. One really bad one, three separate areas had to be cut and the rest were nailed back into place. Kinda wished I didn’t glue the tracks down. It’s a bugger to clean the adhesive under the track to get the track flat again. But I got it to where I’m content. And before you ask, the humidifier is working keeping the house and basement at 50% humidity.
The next thing I learned tonight was how miserable it is to mount the Walthers switch machines under the layout. I only did two. It was a success but it was miserable. Connected my new touch toggles. I really like them a lot. (pics below)
Now something else I did that I wished I didn’t do was spend a lot of money on the new Walthers switches/ turnouts. Yeah, the long continuous point rail look great, but they can bend really easy. I only got the #6’s and had to only “fix” one. I can’t imagine what a #8 or #10 would do. Also, the frogs are really rough. I’m going back to Peco and my ol’ go to, Atlas.
So that was my night. No derailments so I have that!View attachment 248578View attachment 248579View attachment 248580
Concerning kinks, I remember the point was discussed previously in your thread. Gluing or not gluing track to the cork layer ?
I chose to just hold it in place with thumbtacks, apply ballast, then glue the said ballast. This plus soldering joiners every two track lengths to
allow for expansion worked out well, no kinks.
BUT while building the helix and laying track I did make the mistake. In order to get the maximum clearance between laps I laid the track
directly on the wooden subroadbed, without ballast. For the same reason I used 12mm thick plywood instead of the 18mm used elsewhere on the layout.
I also made the subroadbed 8cm wide instead of the 6cm I normally use to get a bit more side clearance with due respect to the sharper
curvature, 84cm (33").
To hold the track I did put a couple tiny drops of CA glue every 2 or 3 feet. Bad idea, a few weeks later I noticed kinks appearing here and
there !
I used a fine blade and freed the track where it was glued, no more issues. Tiny pieces of fine double sided tape every 4 or 5 feet are
enough to avoid side moves, the tape is more forgiving and I didn't notice any kinks. I used the tape for the hidden retun loops and the lower
helix access.
Concerning turnouts I like Peco code 83, n°6, 8 and 7 curved. Since they are, in the visible portion, all accessible from the aisle, I just use
"finger nail activation" as I go with the train. At scale speed I have plenty of time to align or realign them.
I also have no big hidden staging yards, I activate manually, from the aisle, the two hidden turnouts for the lower loops with rods punching through the fascia.
Concerning the single upper loop, turnouts are installed in the visible part, one of them, partially hidden, at the entrance of a snowshed, but
accessible.
