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Friday, March 29, 2024

This is a test of some photos I took with my iPad2. It's all z-scale stuff - code 40 ME unweathered rail with z- and n-scale PCB ties from handlaidtrack.com. Not really sure if this componentized variant of trackwork is considered handlaid, but considering all the extra work required versus popping some snap track into place - it should be considered handlaid. The n-scale ties are for throwbars (not yet installed in photos).

The inner rail radius on the curves (bright blue line) is about 7-3/4", the turnout is a number 6 without the throwbar. The curves were done by pre-bending one rail, using a mainline straight jig to solder the inner rail to the PCB's, popping it out of the jig and then finishing with gauges to attach the pre-bent outer rail. This results in some natural hyperelevation in the curves which can be removed when the rail is attached to roadbed/substrate.


View the official photostream of the official chicken on flickr.

Right now, the complete build-time for a turnout is about 2-3 hours, and I'm laying curved or straight track about 6" an hour, just taking my time. 99% of the time is prepping the PCB ties - making all the stock, diverging, frog, point rails is easy in comparison (with the jigs and filing guides) to trying to sand down 1/16"square by 1/2" long copper-clad fiberglass sticks. I spent about an hour and half prepping 100 of the copper ties (28 per 90-degree arc) followed by another 20 mins soldering the rails. 

I expect that as my skills and technique increase, I should be able to build a turnout in about an hour, or lay close to 1 foot of track.

Quick note - Flickr sucks right now, but I hope it won't always. Good luck to MM trying to clean the suck out of Yahoo!

I'll take some more photos later with a better camera. Let me know what you think!

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