First Run

Wow, another post with so much to report on. I decided to tear up the old road bed and trace out the track plan on the board. That took a while since the curves have 3 different radii. But once I got it done it made the laying of the road bed much easier. I still had alot of difficulty with nails bending though. I think if I had to do it again I would want the sub road bed to be a softer wood like pine instead of plywood so it wouldn't require so much force to bang the nails into it. The track fit wonderfully on the roadbed once it was complete!

Today I laid down the track. I had the same problem with the nails bending as with the roadbed. But it was worse with the track because when the nail bent it would move the track, or worse, split the tie that it was going through. I got about one half of the nails all the way. The other half I gave a few good whacks and when they wouldn't go in any further, I clipped of the head to level it with the rails. And of course I wasn't happy with my first lay of the rails so I pulled most of them up and redid it making sure the joints where tight.

The one part of the track that isn't 100% finished is the turnout for the one industrial siding I installed. I used a Caboose ground throw with the Atlas custom-line turnout. I lliked the look of the ground throw much better then the attached switch control on the standard Altas switches. The switch sits at road bed level with a channel carved out for the switch throw. It works, but the mounting is really lose. I managed to get the nails into the cork roadbed, but I wasn't able to get them into the plywood without bending them. The mounting was complicated becuase unlike the track and roadbed the switch wasn't flat which made it harder to let loose with the hammer without smashing the whole assembly.

The most rewarding part of the day was when I got to put the engine on the track and run it around. It wasn't much, I just drove around a few times, picked up a car from the siding. I didn't even have any uncouplers! I think I will stop by Radio Shack tommorow and see about picking up some magnets for uncouplers.

But the most rewarding part of the day was when I got