The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[davefoxx]

Nothing like some staging to make a layout come to life (operationally). Best of luck with the Amtubes, mine have been nothing but a headache. I tried getting them to work reliably on an 18 and then 24” radius. Lots of problems and settled on a 40” for my current layout mainline. Any tips on what you may have tweaked on them? Part of the problem is the rapido F40s tiny flanges, when pushing those stones it quickly exposed any less than ideal track work. I’ve settled on trying to speed match a (powered) cabbage on the other end And hoping it give me reliable amfleet goodness.

@nuno81291,

I've got mine running reliably down to 20" radii, but it took some effort and finessing to get there.  I went in and trimmed that suspension bracket thingie on the Amtoobs that keeps the truck from turning fully.  The trimming is done on the backside of the bracket, making the modification practically invisible when the car is on the tracks.  I added Sergent Engineering body-mounted couplers on all cars and set them so there's probably 1/8" or 3/16" gap between the diaphragms.  Not perfect, but not overly objectionable under normal viewing.  I haven't had any problems with the Rapido F40PH causing derailments.

I think the radius in this video is approximately 22", if I remember correctly.  I know that my passing siding is down to a 20" radius (not visible here), and my Silver Star will run fine there, too.

But, obviously, yours will look waaaaaaaaay better on those 40" curves than the ridiculousness apparent on my sharp curves.  But, as I wrote yesterday, "Better that than nothing." 

DFF

[Vince P]

Like that little kids commercial.

Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy.

[davefoxx]

“Aw, cork it.”





DFF

[wm3798]

Um.  I'd run two tracks all the way to the end of the shelf, and then clip one of them for the run around.  You could store some odds and ends on the tail tracks.  Your run around would still be limited, but you could use the third long track to stage a train coming inbound, with 0-5-0 switching at the end of the session when it goes back.

Either that or tear up all that HO scale junk and put in a functional yard with N scale capacity!!   You could fit 5 tracks and 40 cars on that shelf and still have room to model a Sam's Club with a parking lot!!

Lee

[davefoxx]

Um.  I'd run two tracks all the way to the end of the shelf, and then clip one of them for the run around.  You could store some odds and ends on the tail tracks.  Your run around would still be limited, but you could use the third long track to stage a train coming inbound, with 0-5-0 switching at the end of the session when it goes back.

Yeah, I could have done all of that, but I don’t want the 0-5-0.  A long third track does me no good, since the track the A&R switches out to in the yard in Aberdeen is not too much longer than the tracks I’m building in the A&R yard.  Not my first day on the job.

Either that or tear up all that HO scale junk and put in a functional yard with N scale capacity!!   You could fit 5 tracks and 40 cars on that shelf and still have room to model a Sam's Club with a parking lot!!

Lee

Never gets old, Lee.  Never gets old.

[davefoxx]

Here’s the yard capacity figured out: three to four cars plus caboose per track, depending on car length:



This adds six to eight cars in total to the layout, which was my goal.

With the cork roadbed down, I wanted to get the turnouts installed, because everything works off of them, and I need to solder the Code 83 flextrack to the Code 100 rails of the turnouts.  So, I crimped and cut off (in length) the rail joiners to accept the Code 83 rails.   I also cut four gaps in the frog rails and inserted 0.010” styrene strip as an insulator.  If not, the track will short as soon as I turn on the layout.  Although some would advocate for the Dremel (and I could have used that), I chose to use my Atlas track saw to cut those gaps.  It’s more work, but well worth it, leaving a mere 0.010” gap.  The Dremel’s gap would have been much larger.

This turnout is almost ready to be installed.  Just need to trim and file the styrene strip insulators:



DFF

[Vince P]

Looking good Dave.

[davefoxx]

Progress!  This afternoon, I installed the turnouts and one yard track.  It's surprising how much time I spent on this project this afternoon and evening, but I not only got track down, I installed bus wires out to the new shelf and dropped some feeders from the new track.  Admittedly, I was slowed down by the Code 83 to Code 100 transitions around the turnouts (soldered Code 83 rail on top of crimped rail joiners), and I have eight more of those transitions to connect the last two tracks.  Anyhow, the layout powered up on the first try, and there were no electrical shorts.  Aly got to run the first train into the new yard.



NCE makes a nice DCC wiring kit that includes bus wires, feeders, and the connectors.  I did several feeder drops, which were necessary, since I had to cut gaps into the three-way turnouts to allow them to work on a DCC layout.



In the event that I ever do roll the layout from the wall again, I installed a PowerPlug Luminaire Disconnect Plug between the shelf and the main layout, so that the bus wires can easily be disconnected:



The funny thing is that I came across yet another piece of Code 83 track, and with that and efficient use of scrap pieces, I think I have enough track to finish the yard.  If not, I have several pieces on order, which should come in a few days.

DFF

[DKS]

Hmmm... I know it's too late now, but I think I'd have used two RH curved turnouts up next to the drain pipe, rather than the three-way on that end. Would have increased yard capacity and eliminated an S-turn. But, if it works, nevermind...

[davefoxx]

Hmmm... I know it's too late now, but I think I'd have used two RH curved turnouts up next to the drain pipe, rather than the three-way on that end. Would have increased yard capacity and eliminated an S-turn. But, if it works, nevermind...

Haha!  After I glued that turnout down today, I stepped back and had that realization of two right hand curved turnouts.  But, all is well.  The s-curves haven’t derailed anything yet, and I wanted to also maximize the single track run between the main layout and the new yard.  We’ll call this the happy medium and keep moving forward.

Thanks,
DFF

[Point353]

Admittedly, I was slowed down by the Code 83 to Code 100 transitions around the turnouts (soldered Code 83 rail on top of crimped rail joiners), and I have eight more of those transitions to connect the last two tracks.

Have you ever tried the code 83 to code 100 transition rail joiners from Atlas?
https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/atlas-ho-551-code-83-to-code-100-transition-joiners-12/

[davefoxx]

Have you ever tried the code 83 to code 100 transition rail joiners from Atlas?
https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/atlas-ho-551-code-83-to-code-100-transition-joiners-12/

@Point353,

No, I haven’t, but I looked into them when I realized that I had sixteen individual transitions to make.  Unfortunately, none of the LHSs, except MBK, had any in stock.  I was willing to make the drive, but, of course, MBK’s retail store is closed, so that blew those plans.   So, I went ahead with making them on my own.  It just takes a little extra time.

This picture shows how I crimped the joiner and cut it for length.  What’s probably not obvious is that I chamfer the bottom of the rail where it abuts the Code 100, because I can’t flatten the joiner completely at the end of the Code 100 rail.  This is probably why Atlas has a slit in the transition joiner in the similar spot.  I use pins to hold one rail in perfect alignment while I solder the joint.



Thanks,
DFF

[davefoxx]

The second yard track is in and wired.  The first excursion has made it out to Fayetteville.  Too funny, @nuno81291, those Amfleet cars will now go around 18” curves with the modifications I mentioned in a previous post.



DFF

[wazzou]

I used to do the same thing when joining PECO Code 55 TO's to ME Code 55 flex. 
It's been a long time since that layout but if I recall, I used a Dremel to shave the shoulder of the joiner completely under the ME flex leaving only the tab because the transition wasn't as much as what you're facing.
You take great care with your track work, I'm sure as a result of your N Scale roots.
I think you're likely fastidious by nature though and this leads to good operations.

[nuno81291]

I can see them being pulled. Do you ever push them? (Or perhaps not prototypical for the line your modeling?)