Model Railroad Blog

Referring to my lack of recent blog postings, a few readers have wondered if I’m floating face down in the Calumet River, the victim of a long overdue mob hit. Rest assured progress continues. As I mentioned, postings about the latest few inches of progress land laying code 40 turnouts doesn’t make for the most compelling reading.

At least for now I’ve decided to hold off on the final crossover exiting the float bridge to see if it’s truly needed. If not, then the track aspect of the layout is pretty much done.

For those that model in N scale, decent code 55 track is more than adequate operationally and easily withstands the three foot eyeball test. Unfortunately it doesn’t present well in close up photography which is an aspect of the hobby I particularly enjoy thus the lengths I’ve gone to do things in code 40.

One of the signature structures on my old Monon layout was Bloomington’s iconic Graham Hotel. When I dismantled the layout I saved the model, thankfully. As luck would have it, the shape is a perfect fit for the Brooklyn Terminal skyline. When I originally built the hotel I left the side tight against the backdrop as an un-detailed slab of styrene. In it’s new location that blank side was the perfect canvas for whatever my imagination could come up with.

During my color strategies presentation at the Cocoa Beach RPM one point I made was the importance of getting away from overly saturated primary colors. They can be distracting, jarring, and unrealistically toy like. Faded, understated earth tones are more effective in our world. I went on the web and did a google image search for “ghost signs”. I selected the image above because it evokes an understated, somber, coal smoke theme.

The faded gray of the hotel wall, emblazoned with faded signage, adds interest without competing with the adjacent elements.

With the PC ties in place and the rail sections fabricated, it’s time to start building the turnouts. The first step is to tin the bottom of the rails. You can see me doing this with the section clamped in the parts holder. Once that’s done, I then solder the pieces onto the PC ties. The photo copy serves as a good starting guide for alignment and positioning but final adjustments are made with a track gauge.

With the turnout rail pieces fashioned, the next step is to prepare the PC ties (they’re used to hold the rail in position). In all other locations traditional wood ties will be used. Printed circuit board is much thinner than flex track or wood ties and the height differential is a bit of a pain when it comes time to place the turnout on the layout. To get around this I glue a piece of .020″ styrene strip to the bottom to bring them up to height. In the photo above, I first glued the styrene shims in place with white glue and then cut the pc ties to length and glued them on top of the styrene strip with CA.

Once the PC ties are shimmed and in position, I then tin them with solder. In the next installment I’ll be soldering the rail to the ties.