Making Tracks - (Or, better late than never)

Well, it's been two weeks since the events in this blog occurred, but the story is still worth telling......

It all started when I had one of those rare (for me) Wednesday work sessions, and true to form, it was full of moments.......

So, before the guys came over that night, I made sure I had rail, rail joiners, and any other supplies (like beer and scotch, naturally) ready for my pals. One of the major projects (and the main reason for having a bunch of extra hands available) was to move and reposition the Monmouth Street team yard (see below) into it's new position. No big deal, and I proceeded to have friend Jim Fawcett make sure it didn't come down on top of my head as I backed out the screws holding it to the layout.......And then, everything went to Hell in a hand basket......

How the heck is this supposed to line up, I ask you?

So it turns out you should never, NEVER assume that your tracks are gonna line up the way you expect (or want) them to, and you should move and measure things into position first, or as they say when cutting wood, measure twice, cut once! Well, of course this got discovered just as the rest of the "team" arrived. I scrambled around, looking for a suitable alternative in my "turnout stash", and even the CRAZY idea of installing a custom hand laid turnout was bandied about (friends Craig, Dave and Ted are all Fast Tracks users, and have built their layouts almost exclusively using their track laying products), but as Dave put it, "But if we do that, it won't say Peco on it", so in the end, I ran down the street to the hobby store to pick up what I hoped would be "the" turnout to get me out of this mess.....

OMG, $34 for one lousy turnout?!

I am VERY lucky that I live all of 5 minutes from the Model Railroad Shop, which is New Jersey's, if not the Country's, oldest continually operated model train shop. Not only are the prices good, but the owner Jack deRosset is a class act and always a pleasure to deal with. So, praying that this Peco turnout would do the trick once I got it home (thank God I was there only 2 nights before and had noticed it hanging on the pegboard), I ran in and out (though not as fast as I wanted to) and back to the boys, who were already getting other little projects done in my absence.

Who needs custom track work?

Well as you can plainly see, it worked, perfectly, I might add. On top of it, friend Jim Fawcett cut the out the most perfect piece of foam to fill the gap between sections here. This 3 track team track section that's causing all this work was added on to the layout very early on when friend Walt Appel had to dismantle his layout, and in the process, I saw it was perfect for what (and where) it is on the layout, so he "willed" it to me and it was sparred a trip to the dumpster. For the longest time, it was the only thing on the layout with track, and it's still the only thing with any kind of scenery! It's also built out of Homasote and heavy wood framing, whereas the other section in the foreground (the Grand Street LCL penninsula) is made with simple 1x2 framing and a foam base. Of course the odd angle, and that lolly column don't helps things, either.

The entire reason for all of this was that after the last Shakedown, we discovered that the radius here into the team yard was not only way too tight, but there were vertical curves as well between the sections. So to get a better alignment, I figured that I needed to bump out the section by at least an inch (it turnout out to only be 1 /2 of an inch), and now, once I secure everything back together this weekend, I should be in good shape. (*update - It has since been installed permanently, see below)

Yes, I tested it, and it operates VERY smoothly...Just need to add some more power feeders


Here's a 1951 Sanborn Map of the real thing.....3 tracks outta 8 aren't TOO bad!
The tracks from Grand Street freight station come in from the top, and the Edgewater Branch tracks are to the left.

Wow, this actually looks like a real model railroad! Needless to say, I've got inspired to finish up the other trackwork that needed doing...Stay tuned!

So all is all, a happy ending......Now, I just need to clean up the place for the February Shakedown.....It looks like a bomb went off! (a direct quote from my girlfriend when she went down to the basement when I came home one night). Until the next post, happy model railroading!

Ralph