Building Track for the New Layout

I got online a couple of Tuesday nights back with some of the Tuesday Nighters and Tyler from Taswegia.  Tyler was showing me detail photos from the QLD QImagery site from the 90’s.  We got online again on the Wednesday evening and a very detailed photo that Tyler provided me, blew we away and caused me to revisit my future exhibition layout track design.  My previous design of my future layout was from published photos and articles on the topic.   I had wrongfully designed the narrow gauge trackage in my layout siding area to have a large narrow gauge loop.  I guess these diagrams were correct at a point in time and not when I was setting my layout date.  The QImagery shots are more timely and thus more accurate.  A closer look at the photo shows that there was another section of dual gauge trackage in the yard.  I was planning on making the sidings through a large building on the layout - narrow gauge.  They were in fact both standard gauge tracks with one of those being dual gauge.  Out the back of the building, there was a crossover and two dead end tracks not both tracks coming into a single track section as I had planned it.  So I now needed to borrow PK’s dual gauge jigs again and build at least 3 more dual gauge points.  While that will be fun, it complicates the trackwork immensely, but it will also look very interesting.  I went down to the shed on Thursday of the previous week lunch time and went through my collection of previously made dual gauge trackage.  At that time I thought it turned out that two of the three pieces of track have already been made.  I have gone through a number of iterations of trackage on Cassino in a number of areas (well actually around Acacia Ridge Yard, Clapham Yard and Fisherman Islands).  So, these old points get taken out and replaced from time to time as I make changes to the trackwork, etc.  So I joined two of these pieces of track up to some narrow, standard and dual gauge flex track and ran some wagons through the track.  I’m quite happy that the already existing pieces of track all seem to run quite well.  So I only now have to build one set of dual gate points.

But I need to get my paper track layout diagrams out and re-design things to ensure that everything still fits.  I could not be bothered last week to do that.  So it looks like this Wednesday is when I will do this.

On Tuesday evening this week, I picked up the FastTrack Jigs from PK at our fortnightly Tuesday Nighter's in person meeting.  This jig will allow me to build my first point in the sequence from the siding.  I easily built that on Wednesday morning. This point was not actually a point.  It could have been built just as a splitter piece of track with the narrow gauge going straight and standard gauge coming in from the right.  However, the shared rail is on the right.  I did not need a moving point blade, as I could have just guided the wheels on the standard gauge around that angle.  But I put the moving point rail in this version of the track.  That might change in the future.  In the afternoon, I went down to the shed to put this new piece of track next to the point that goes next to it.  Then I went DOH!  The piece that I had reserved for this location, was in fact only a splitter track, and not a left hand narrow gauge track with dual gauge and a common right hand rail.  Bugger.  I had two of these pieces of track.  So I could have half demolished this piece of track and add in the narrow gauge point component, but I’m thinking that it will be far easier just building the new piece of track.  Luckily, this piece of track that I now have to make, is the other piece of track in the current Jig that I borrowed off PK on Tuesday night.  Sometimes you can get lucky.

The first point I built on Wednesday this week was the one on the left above.  But when it came time to check it with the one I already had previously built, (the one on the right above) my original one was just a splitter, instead of a point.  So I needed to make the one on the right.

This was an existing point that will go on the layout and form a standard gauge crossover outside a shed (which will be on the left of the point) to enable a run around movement on the standard gauge locos.

So this new point was built on Wednesday afternoon and finished off on Thursday morning.  While not perfect, I can successfully run narrow gauge and standard gauge wagons through the trackage.  I have also joined everything up in a test arrangement and can run trains the combination of all their pieces of track now.  PK may get his jig back next Saturday.  But it depends on how many photos he published of me over the coming week.

On Saturday I participated in a planning day for our NMRA Division to help identify some of the things we need to accomplish over the next 12 months.