N scale Falls Road Secondary 'Retro Modeling Childhood memories'

[learmoia]

Though I voted for the Somerset coal, I'd have chosen the autoparts train over all others.

Cool Thanks... As I pulled out the Auto Parts cars.. the Trainworx and Bluford 86' cars did not play well with the #4 turnouts..

So I'm going to need to fine tune those.. as well as the #4 switches. 

The facility that I'm modeling primarily takes 60' Conrail cars so I might thin down my fleet of 86' cars.

[learmoia]

[learmoia]

[lock4244]

Good first run... of course the Somerset coal stole the show! Pacing trains was a nice touch, too... very much something you'd find on the WLR (I know this is the Falls Road, but still). My experience with Unitrack is that it is not as perfect as one might like, and certain equipment doesn't play well with the switches, especially and drooping magnetic uncoupling pins and some details. Though I've never used any #4's, I've had similar issues with the #6 switches.

I've never considered using Unitrack for an entire layout, only my temporary set up (20 years now) between layouts. In fact I've fought the urge to put down Unitrack on my benchwork as it'd surely be the death of any progress for probably too long. I suppose it gets you up and running pretty quickly vis a vis flextrack... facing the prospect of laying track as I'm basically at the end of phase 1 of benchwork. Was that your reasoning in going the Unitrack route?

[learmoia]

This last December, I learned of uncertainty in my job within the next 18 months (FF to Now ...within the next year but I think everything will be OK),

At the time, I was SOO close to getting up and running with trains I made the decision to jump to Unitrack so I could quickly get up and running.. Likewise, if I needed to tear it down and move it, I could do so easily and setup something new equally fast.

If you look at the history in videos.. I went from no track to a completed main line within 2 months.. (Apart from the #4 switches it's pretty worry free..).. and most of that was finishing some benchwork sections and working on other stuff on the Youtubve channel. The time spent laying track from nothing to what I have now is probably amounted to less than a week of 8 hour work sessions.   

Am I happy with the choice?... Yes. I have trains running where I don't think I would yet with traditional track.
Do I like the track?....  Meh... Sort of...
--Nothing wrong with it, but rigid track you loose flexibility in geometry options.
My biggest gripes are...
--I wish the Double Track concrete tie curves were available in black ties to match the traditional track.  (it has broader curves than single track..)
--I wish the #6 switch had 33mm spacing out of the box.  (Or I wish they did #6 single crossovers like they did in concrete ties.)
--I wish they had 30-45-60-75deg diamonds.. (But you can make them using Atlas Code 80 track pretty easily.. )

I wish Tomix Fine Track was widely available in the US.. Not sure if its better but has a wider range of geometry options.
 
Another thing to keep in mind.. I haven't fine turned ANYTHING yet.. Everything that was running was straight out of the box and put on the layout.  Some of the problems could be the equipment as much as the track..

I'll be doing a video on #4 switch improvements in the next week or so.. .

[lock4244]

That's what I figured, Unitrack gets you something to run on quickly. Getting a layout of that size running from one end to the other in 2 months is pretty remarkable.

Biggest problem I find with it is I get the odd rough joint. Not to the point where it's not usable but they stand out visually to a degree, audibly with metal wheels more so. Of course, my track has been connected and pulled apart quite a bit over the years and I don't do any fine tuning.

[Mike C]

  @learmoia   -I wish the Double Track concrete tie curves were available in black ties to match the traditional track.  (it has broader curves than single track..)

   A paint pen is your friend here .   Mike

[learmoia]

 

  @learmoia   -I wish the Double Track concrete tie curves were available in black ties to match the traditional track.  (it has broader curves than single track..)

   A paint pen is your friend here .   Mike

I was planning that but the overall geometry of the superelevated curve was limited by 45 degree curves, so you can only do 45 (using just the 22.5 easements) then 90 - 135 - 180 deg increments and it didn't work where I wanted to use it.

Selling the Super elevated track in two or four piece packs of 22.5 degree segments would have been easier to work with.
F
or my 90 degree curves I ended up using using
718-15>481-15>381-30>481-15>718-15 for the outer curve
718-15>481-15>348-30>481-15>718-15 for the inner curve

For the big S-Curve east (right) of Lockport yard, I used 718-481-718 combination.

I ended up using the double track concrete curves on the 90 degree curves in the utility room.


 

[learmoia]

I guess I haven't posted an update since June..  I've been doing all the updates on the youtube channel.

Still plugging away... Staging yard is starting to come together..
Not a valid youtube URL
I'm coming to find that I have way more than I can fit on the layout.. and I need to thin down some things I won't run...


Also Working on an N scale barn kit for the UFO Site.
Not a valid youtube URL

[learmoia]

I guess I haven't posted since August..

Many things have changed..

Still doing a bunch of youtube stuff....
https://www.youtube.com/@INMRLive

And assembled a sizable addition to the layout.

(Skip to about 1h 08m on the last one.)