Relaying track and cork -- need consolation

[crossthedog]

Hi guys,

For reasons I've detailed elsewhere, I ended up having to move a turnout back onto a straight from its original planned position in a curve. While moving the turnout solved one problem, it left me with another that I kicked down the road until now. It caused a straight section of track to be too short to easily accommodate any prebuilt bridges or prepared bridge kits, except for a short deck girder, and the prototype would not likely put a deck girder in this spot, because a river runs under it whose level has to be untenably close to the bottom of the bridge, if it were a deck girder. I can't move the river because there needs to be a certain depth and flow to it, and my benchwork anticipated it being in a certain place. The obvious solution, one I just didn't want to face up to, is to just slightly reshape one of my mainline curves so that it ends before it reaches the bridge, and the tracks arrive at the bridge straight. If I do this, I can use a through girder, which is what the prototype would be in this situation.

So today I'm pulling up track. As a distraction and consolation, it would be fun to hear about a time that despite your sharpest foresight and smartest planning you ended up having to pull up perfectly good track and redo it.

Tell me a story. Sing me the mainline blues.

-Matt 

[ricktrains4824]

You mean like that time I looked at my plan upside-down, and placed the yard tracks the wrong side for the ladder off the lead? 

I laid for left turnout then all rights, had right then all lefts.....

I laid it lead, yard, main, it should have been yard, lead, main...

Next layout - The yard will have the ladder down first.

[SpaceMouse]

I built the first Rock Ridge and Train City using EZ track. The problem is that all the docks were too low below the rail and the turnouts broke down--an easy fix as long as the track wasn't attatched. 

So I tore out all the track, and decided that since I was relaying track, I might asz well fix all the issues I had with the layout.

 

[doctorwayne]

crossthedog

So today I'm pulling up track. As a distraction and consolation, it would be fun to hear about a time that despite your sharpest foresight and smartest planning you ended up having to pull up perfectly good track and redo it.

There wasn't much in the way of foresight, but I built a structure which required several other buildings to be relocated on the same siding.  It also involved removal and relocation of a turnout, and re-alignment of the track

Here's the track in its original form, with the empty "lot" the site for the new structure...

 

...and  removal of the turnout...

 

...and a little clean-up of the area...

Turnout re-located ....

...and the track re-ballasted...

...and lengthened...

 

While the area is still unfinished, it's at least a little closer to what I want...

 

To finish this area, my plan is to temporarily remove the upper fascia (to the left, in the photo below) to allow access to finish the background street and structures, and to also install under-track magnets for remote uncoupling...

Wayne

[gmpullman]

Just did this last week.

For years I've had this "unfinished" REA platform area and decided it was time to do something about it:

REA_Siding by Edmund, on Flickr

The platform was at ground-level and there was no way to get hand trucks or baggage carts up to the express building. A raised platform was the answer 

REA_Siding-high by Edmund, on Flickr

I went ahead and made the platform using the existing concrete slab but when I set it in place I then realized there was no clearance for the overhang of the car side on the slight curve. 

Modify the platform or re-lay the siding?

REA_Siding-rip by Edmund, on Flickr

Option 2 prevailed.

REA_Siding-track by Edmund, on Flickr

REA_Siding-ballast by Edmund, on Flickr

REA_Siding-rain by Edmund, on Flickr

Sometimes ya' just gotta do it!

Good Luck, Ed

[FRRYKid]

The one foul-up that comes to mind for me is when I was laying the mainline for my current layout. The pieces were originally intended to be a yard expansion to my prior layout. Due to health concerns with my now late father, the original idea never happened. I did finish the frameworks and had a friend help me get the pieces moved into town. I reworkied the original design a bit and built the new layout in my apartment bedroom. (Yes it was a good sized bedroom and I built the layout in such a way that the bed would work around the layout.) The mainline is 22"R track. In the process, somehow I ended up with a piece of 15"R (!) track in the stack. Ended up having to recut some cork sheet and reinstall in for the proper radius.

I also have changed the track plan in a few other places too when I found I wanted to use pieces off the old layout. So more new trackwork and removing and redoing bedding.

[crossthedog]

You guys are tops. Thanks. I feel a little better. And actually, relaying the curve wasn't the most horrible task. And everything feels right now. The right bridge, a more sensible approach. It made for a slightly tighter curve down the line a few yards, which I don't like -- my original curve was wide and elegant and laid well -- but that section is sort of hidden away and is untroubled by turnouts or crowding scenery so it's an acceptable compromise. Still, because of the just-barely-enough easement, the grab bar on my Branchline passenger car just clears the bridge side wall by a scale foot and a half.

Thanks for sharing your stories.

-Matt

[selector]

If you're still reading, Matt, I had to modify super-elevation along curves on my second layout pretty much every time I introduced a new steamer to my stable. Not all curves, some super was just fine, but every single time I ran a new steamer, it would derail someplace, and not intermittently.  It would happen at Speed Step 3 and Speed Step 30, didn't matter.  So, if i wanted to run the nice new loco, what did I have to do?

However, there was one curve that seemed to present a problem more often than most.  I got my first BLI Hybrid, the TTT Union Pacific 2-10-2, a truly lovely specimen. Sure enough, it derailed reliably along one part of that one curve.  I decided one day that I was going to rip it all up and start again.  This would be about three years into reliable running for maybe 15 other steamers by then, all different, and from different suppliers. 

I wetted the ballast along about 4', waited, and dug it all up.  I had to clean the roadbed, which was splines, and then figure out how to marry up new tracks to what was on either end of this bare gap, but then to ensure the rail heights were correct for all other locomotives, not just the new one. I did figure it out by running several locos and the new one on unballasted rails until they performed well, and then carefully added and glued the ballast to anchor it all in place.  I think it only took me maybe two hours in total, not a lot, plus of course waiting for the ballast to harden before I swallowed hard and gingerly ran the new steamer across.  Success!  Faster. Success!  Reversing up the grade along the curve. Success!  Faster.  Success! Now several other locomotives, and they also ran without incident. 

I never looked back, and neither will you.  Well, not unless I wanted to relate my experience.  I'll never forget that. 

I am happy you shared your predicament, and as happy that many of us jumped in to encourage you to this bold, but oh-so-necessary, step.  Good on you!

[crossthedog]

Hi Selector,

Yes, I'm still reading. I usually check back for a week or so after I've gotten whatever I need from a post. It's beyond me how superelevation can be optimal -- or I guess more to the point, detrimental -- to different locos at different degrees. Remind me not to get that far into model railroading. Crikey, you might as well be working for the prototype roads and getting paid for your math skills. 

Also, thanks for the great photos, guys. Inspiring and instructive.

-Matt

[NVSRR]

My entire quarry complex is in need of correcting.   Haven't started that yet since I am working through the city scene still.   Built the quarry as one of the first areas after the mainline was completed.   11 years later and I see it isn't very well designed track wise.  For operation.   To be fixed soon.  

Shane

[Track fiddler]

Hi Matt and gang

Some great modifications and solutions here

I was fortunate enough not to have my track laid due to procrastination more than once in the beginning stages of my layout.  It was a rare  couple of times when procrastination turned out to be a good thing

I had an afterthought of rapping a Spur around the outside edge of my layout as I found it could go to a lower level to add a lumber mill on a lake.

You can see the afterthought edition was way too tight for scenery next to the other two tracks under the bridge.  So the foam corners were removed and stenciled off to add three inches so the spur could be moved out.

More stenciling was added to go under the existing radius for more stability.

Appropriate height risers were placed for the new extended radius.

Here is the extended radius added to make room for the scenery.

Here is the beginning stages of the removable mountainous scenery now that the spur had been moved out far enough to accommodate it

I must admit I've been procrastinating the continuation of this mountain that was in progress.  Sometimes I get bored or flustered with a project in the process and go do something else for a while

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

TF

 

 

[wjstix]

FWIW I've never understood why anyone would glue down track in the first place for this very reason? A big part of the reason I use 'click track' (Kato Unitrack in my case) is that you can test out things and run trains without having to fasten anything down, and make sure it all works before making it permanent. No matter how much time I spend track planning, when I actually put the track down and run trains, it seems like I always find things I can adjust to make it better.

[richhotrain]

wjstix

FWIW I've never understood why anyone would glue down track in the first place for this very reason? 

Exactly my sentiments. I have always nailed down track, and I have constantly repositioned the track during the track testing process. Once ballasting  has been completed, you can always pull up the nails.

Rich

[Doughless]

Every layout I've built, including the current layout, required some type of relaying roadbed and track.  Its par for the course.  I tend to change my mind on how I want certain sections to look or operate.

Currently, I did not like the way several spurs looked cluttered and crowded, so I spread out the industries more and changed the spurs to accomodate.  I'm currently adding a longer interchange track to one end of the layout which requires splicing a turnout into a section of flex track, that must be removed first of course.

I use foam roadbed product on plywood, and taking up the caulked roadbed is not an issue.  Homabed is impossible to take up without destroying the roadbed.  I don't know about cork over caulk.

Its not glued.  Its caulked.  And its more tacky than a secure adhesive.  Depends on the product. 

If its glued after ballasting, water makes the glue/ballast mushy enough to take up.  Again, I don't think a paper based product like Homabed will survive that much water application.

[doctorwayne]

wjstix

I've never understood why anyone would glue down track in the first place for this very reason?

richhotrain

Exactly my sentiments. I have always nailed down track, and I have constantly repositioned the track during the track testing process. Once ballasting has been completed, you can always pull up the nails.

I usually nail my track in place, too, whether it's on cork or directly on plywood.  If I'm using cork, I glue it in place with carpenter's glue, then temporarily secure it with 2" nails driven through the cork, and then slightly into the 3/4" plywood roadbed.  The nails are easily removed the next day, after the glue has set.

When I added the partial upper level to my layout, I sketched out the main track's centreline, then glued down the cork using contact cement....no nails needed and no waiting for glue to dry.
Next, I added Central Valley's plastic tie strips (1' long pieces, cemented together into 15' or 20' lengths.  They were added atop the cork, again using contact cement, with sheets of waxed paper between the roadbed and the ties.  Each sheet was slipped, in-turn, from under the tie strips and the ties pressed into place, using the small nubs on the centre of the ties to to line-up with the centreline of the cork roadbed.

Next, I soldered 3' lengths of rail into 15' or 21' lengths, then repeated the contact cement process to secure the rails to the ties.  The majority of turnouts used were ready made, although I did build one using a Central Valley kit.

The gluing process was somewhat tedious, and did elicit some complaints from SWMBO, but I do like the look of the finished track...

While I had lots of the tie strip material, I couldn't find any nearby source for code 83 rail.  I did, however, have a good supply of Atlas flextrack.
I had enough rail to do the double track along both sides of this portion of the upper level, along with the single track curve at the far end of the room...

...while this area is mostly nailed-in-place Atlas flex, with a variety of turnouts...

 

 

Other than the turnout re-location and track re-alignment shown earlier, I've not had need to take up any mainline track for re-alignment.

Wayne