Here a list of track laying activities and notes.
Minimum mainline radius is 24" with moderate easements. Room width and layout design limited track radius. Small steam and first or second gen. diesels look OK on medium curves. Mostly 4 axle diesels powered the branch in the 60's and later. That would be GP9's and 38's, as well as an occasional SD9E. In the steam era 2-6-0's moguls, and 2-8-0's consolidations ran on the branch, with occasional Pacifics allowed but not often seen. Micro Engineering code 70 is used throughout the modeled portion; Atlas code 83 in staging. The turnouts in the modeled portion are ME #6's with Atlas#5's in staging.
Track is on cork roadbed. Cork, which I've used time and again, does not seem as good a sound deadener as homasote. Other then that I have no complaints. Yard and/or broad areas with multiple tracks are covered in midwest sheet cork, everything else is on HO scale midwest cork strips with the standard beveled edge.
The track plan was roughly transferred to the plywood via the "look at the computer, read the various measurements, ie length, radius, distance to various points etc" method. A more accurate transfer is to print out 1:1 centerline drawings of the track work, laying it down on the subroadbed and using a pounce wheel or other methods to transfer the centerline. The constraints here are having access to a large roll printer or piecing together standard 8.5" x 11" sheets to create a mosaic. I've used both methods. I ended up transferring measurements from a model railroad CAD software program, in my case 3rd Planit, directly to the layout. Below shows the beginnings of Folsom yard, with some trackwork already in place. If you look closely you can see a portion of the drawn lines on the cork extending from the switch in the center of the photo
There are hundreds of magazine articles and several books covering track laying techniques. These are the methods I used in constructing track work for the Placerville Branch. Again I have to thank Phil Gulley for his help in getting this work sorted out.
Switches or turnouts are laid out first, followed by the connections via flex track in between. Prepare the turnouts by cutting out at least 1 tie at each of the three ends. This makes room for sliding the rail joiners onto rail ends in most cases. After tie removal, use a single cut mill file at each rail top and bottom to remove any manufacturing burrs. Take it easy - the ME track is not robust. I typically counted 5 to 10 file strokes for each rail at each position. Smooth the top, the bottoms and the square the face of each rail. Lastly create a point on the foot or bottom of the rail. This helps slide a code 70 rail joiner into position. In the above photo you can see the gaps created by the tie removal . They get filled in later. We removed the manufacturers points spring allowing the tortoise or blue point to do its job without spring resistance. We checked every switch with a NMRA track gauge to ensure that the point and flangeway spacing was correct. Many of the ME flangeways were tight and had to be filed. Also at times frog rails would be higher then the rails around it, stock, connecting, etc., so I would flat file this area as well. Lastly I wired 30 gauge wire across the point to closure rail connection to ensure electrical continuity at the points. Later I regretted doing this, as I found my solder and wire position held across the two rails would cause undue pressure on the point rails, enough so that some switches would not close properly in the normal or diverging positions. The only remedy I found was to remove the 30 gauge wire across the gap. I never figured out how to perform this task so that this would not happen, but I assume it had to do with the amount of solder used. Go light is my only advice.
I drilled ¼" holes for the .039" control switch machine wire, then set the switch in position, ensuring its correct alignment. When setting the switch into position its important to mark the 3 positions, diverging, normal and at the points. Lastly mark the center of travel for the point rails at the throwbar to mark the 1/4" control wire hole.
My trackwork is secured using clear loctite construction adhesive. After marking remove the switch one more time. Lay down the clear adhesive and spread it with scrap so the switch will cover it. Don't use too much, as ideally your track piece simply covers the adhesive and doesn't seep up between the ties. Careful around the control wire hole and switch points. They must remain clean of any adhesive. We used push pins the hold each piece in place and let to dry overnight. The next day we removed the pins and had our turnouts in place.
I think the argument could be made that gluing down track work is risky as opposed to simply nailing it down or using white glue, where water can be used to break down the glue later and save the piece(s) for reuse. I know its an argument because I've operated layouts where this was the case. I'm just not of that ilk. I didn't want a temporary solution, but a permanent one with no movement, and I'm not going to reuse any of the track. If your confident of your plan, it's easy to put it in place.
I can't recommend enough having a copy of John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operations.
I leave you with a photo of track work in process at the Flonellis grade on the right and the beginnings of Dugan Springs on the left. In this photo the peninsula has been built and the lower level backdrop is in place.
Lastly this points to a pdf that I like alot; Turnout PDF
I drilled ¼" holes for the .039" control switch machine wire, then set the switch in position, ensuring its correct alignment. When setting the switch into position its important to mark the 3 positions, diverging, normal and at the points. Lastly mark the center of travel for the point rails at the throwbar to mark the 1/4" control wire hole.
My trackwork is secured using clear loctite construction adhesive. After marking remove the switch one more time. Lay down the clear adhesive and spread it with scrap so the switch will cover it. Don't use too much, as ideally your track piece simply covers the adhesive and doesn't seep up between the ties. Careful around the control wire hole and switch points. They must remain clean of any adhesive. We used push pins the hold each piece in place and let to dry overnight. The next day we removed the pins and had our turnouts in place.
I think the argument could be made that gluing down track work is risky as opposed to simply nailing it down or using white glue, where water can be used to break down the glue later and save the piece(s) for reuse. I know its an argument because I've operated layouts where this was the case. I'm just not of that ilk. I didn't want a temporary solution, but a permanent one with no movement, and I'm not going to reuse any of the track. If your confident of your plan, it's easy to put it in place.
I can't recommend enough having a copy of John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operations.
I leave you with a photo of track work in process at the Flonellis grade on the right and the beginnings of Dugan Springs on the left. In this photo the peninsula has been built and the lower level backdrop is in place.
Lastly this points to a pdf that I like alot; Turnout PDF
