Back on Track.

Last Thursday I finally got my second shipment of track in, so this weekend I was able to “finish” the track planning and finally make some progress beyond rolling pink foam plains.

Let’s talk about track planning. I’ve never been very good at it. Over the years I’ve gazed at hundreds of plans in Model Railroader and various books. I’ve ogled at basement empires with a double track main, broad curves, and huge industries and yards. I’ve looked at clever plans that cram a lot of action, including operation, in a small space. And yet, for all the hundreds of plans that I’ve seen over the years, when I put my pencil to the paper and try to sketch out something, I just can’t seem to come up with anything decent.

I don’t know what the problem is. As has been recounted previously, the last layout I did, I got an Atlas paper track planning template kit, and laid it all out on the floor and rearranged until I came up with something I liked. Well, that works great, in theory, but in practice it wasn’t so good. Paper and track do not align exactly the same, so I ended up having to make a huge compromise in the plan that I was never very happy with.

This time around, I thought I would just “wing it,” so-to-speak. Well, not exactly. I am torn between the desire to come up with a good plan and the desire to actually see some trains roll. So I decided to complete one outer loop, with some switches thrown in for future expansion. I’m limited on funds and can’t afford all the turnouts that I would need for a yard yet, as it is.

I spent about an hour on Friday night playing around with different track configurations to come up with something that I really liked. I did have to cut one 11 in. radius curve to fit. Hopefully I won’t regret that. I used all sectional track, as my past experience with flex track was not very positive. Flex track sounds great, until you have to lay it on a curve. If you’re not familiar with the stuff, it’s a 3-foot long section of track that has one fixed rail, and one that moves freely. This allows you to curve it easily.

The problem with flex track is that you have to use a large compass to draw out the curves beforehand in order to get their radii consistent. And then you’ll have to cut it, as one end will extent far beyond the other. Finally, you to have ensure that the rails remain in gauge on tight curves and joints. Basically it’s a major pain in the butt. So sectional track it is.

On Saturday morning, I put rail joiners on all of the track and formed a complete loop for the first time. I then took a couple of heavyweight passenger cars (they have a long wheelbase—about 85’ I think) and pushed them around, looking for any obvious issues. I didn’t find anything particularly glaring, so I decided to call it “done.”

Next time: More Pink Stuff and Liquid Nails.