Perch Lake Lumber CO. #5
Layout Rebuild
Under Constreucion 5/26/23
Updated 8/24/24
Building a full-size model of the shelf to design the under table turnout control mounting parts.
Getting a turnout control hole vertical thru 9, 1/4s of plywood and 2" of foam is a problem. I have drilled a 1/8" hole down as vertical as I am able and then drilled up from under the plywood with a 7/8" drill to the foam. The plastic mount will hold a set of brass tubing and the piano Wire to operate the turnouts from the switch machines.
Many plans and tests of the mounting system for control of the turnouts was done on this model. The result was that the length of the wire run from below the turnout to the under layout mount was to long. The wire would twist over the length requiring more than 180 degrees of movement below the layout to move the points on a turnout. That idea was out of the question.
I went ahead and built the layout with my hand made turnouts and the foam roadbed.
After the roadbed was installed the turnouts were aligned and installed on the foam.
The Layout was built as planned and turnouts were installed for ground throws.
Pins held the flex track in place before it was glued to the roadbed.
Here are some of the solutions used to glue the flex track to the roadbed and to stain the wood of the turnouts.
The time between the trips up north the temperature and humidity changes were extreme. This caused the turnouts to develop issues of alignment between the PC board ties soldered to the rails and the rails glued to the Quick Sticks. most of the 27 turnouts needed adjustment to allow smooth operations. I found this unacceptable.
Searching for an answer to this problem I found the new Walthers Code 83 turnouts which matched the NMRA standard and were equal to the turnouts on the layout. Number 5 and 6 matched my handmade turnouts with the exception of the 1 inch extension that I added to my turnouts.
Testing the Walthers turnouts on the layout proved to solve the problem but added issues of alignment of the tracks leading into and out of the new turnouts. I did not want to add 1"inch sections of track to each of the 3 ends of each turnout. I work with the placement to decide if I could place the points end at the current end of track leading to the turnout or place the turnout at the frog end of the location. While these solutions saved time or removal of glued down track they did not always work. In many cases I had to adjust 3 sections of track and sometimes the diverging roadbed.
After replacement of the turnouts on the entire layout operations became easy. and from visit to visit the changes of the weather did not affect the alignment of the track work.
A note. The Walthers turnouts had springs that would hold the points in place without a motor or ground throw.
But! Being me, I started to put in additional sidings for rail served industries. I continue to add such additional track and turnouts as well.
Continued in Section 6, (Click here)
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