L&N somewhere in Eastern Kentucky

[LIRR]

The paving crew was here today....

[LIRR]

I've been making slow progress rebuilding the road after reconfiguring the tracks for the new branch. It turned out to be a bigger job than anticipated. I was originally going to patch where I took up the tracks, but I ended up taking up nearly the entire road on the town side of the main. I was able to leave it alone on the coal dealer side. Anyway, here's where it stands....



Also, the switch in the street wasn't paved over entirely as covered a few pages ago in the thread. But that wasn't plausible with the new switch in the new location. So I am gingerly working up to it.....the last piece will be styrene between the points and cover plates over the head locks in the street.....



This is the normal viewing angle for me, so I think it will look good. I'll also add some foreground distractions when I do the scenery......

[Baronjutter]

I've really grown to hate plastering track like that, it's all solid cut fills from now on.  That scene is going to look great though once everything is all in.

[LIRR]

It's not my favorite thing to do.....but I like the track in the street look....

[LIRR]

Jumped back to the paper mill for a bit......

[LIRR]

The switch in the street is coming along...

[LIRR]

Nearly finished the chip silo and conveyor house assembly......
Site work ready for painting.....



Handrails and ladder cage are done....



Next is conveyors from the wood chip pile and to the kraft mill.....

[rodsup9000]

Just got caught back up on layout and it is coming very nicely. I like the branch line idea.

[LIRR]

The turnout in the paved street turned out much, much better than I had aniticipated when I started out on this change....the street isn't finish painted yet, it's still too dark. But here's how it looks:



This is the normal viewing angle for me....




I've been working on the bridge section of the new branch.....photos soon....

[davefoxx]

That is the best result of a turnout buried in pavement that I have ever seen.  Even from the birds-eye angle, it's more than acceptable looking.  You'll have to reveal your secret.

DFF

[LIRR]

More of a method than a secret.....I got to this point



By delicately adding drywall compound and avoiding all moving parts. Then I used .010 styrene to cover the headblocks on both sides and got to here



You can still see the styrene. The wire stuck up to high....so I was trying to nibble around it with the compound and minimize the hole. Then I was able to go below and shim the switch machine enough to lower the wire, then I covered the last gap with styrene as well. You can see the shadow of this cover plate in the previous post photo....this represents a plate in the street that would need to be lifted to throw the switch. I will paint it a different color to represent a steel plate.

I also used styrene between the points, with enough clearance so the styrene is glued to the ties and does not move when the switch is thrown. I used compound at either end to transition between this styrene and the adjoining pavement.

[coldriver]

More of a method than a secret.....I got to this point

By delicately adding drywall compound and avoiding all moving parts. Then I used .010 styrene to cover the headblocks on both sides and got to here

You can still see the styrene. The wire stuck up to high....so I was trying to nibble around it with the compound and minimize the hole. Then I was able to go below and shim the switch machine enough to lower the wire, then I covered the last gap with styrene as well. You can see the shadow of this cover plate in the previous post photo....this represents a plate in the street that would need to be lifted to throw the switch. I will paint it a different color to represent a steel plate.

I also used styrene between the points, with enough clearance so the styrene is glued to the ties and does not move when the switch is thrown. I used compound at either end to transition between this styrene and the adjoining pavement.

That really does look excellent and certainly a feature not often done that effectively in N-scale.  I'll try your method eventually but I think I'll want to do a few practice runs on old bad order switches before going live on the layout. 

[LIRR]

It honestly never been occurred to me to test the method on and old turnout.....I figured I'd just do it over or differently if it didn't work out. No guts, no glory I suppose

[LIRR]

I need bridge abutments to push the new branch forward. I've used and had success with stacked plywood to simulate poured concrete. However I wanted something different this time, so I decided on masonry. I though of casting them in plaster, but building the mold wasn't appealing to me. So I'd thought I'd try something new.

Floral foam.....









Covered with joint compound....

[dnhouston]

Interesting idea, inexpensive and easy to carve.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.