Hi,

We've had a weekend of track laying on Heworth Sidings so it's time for an entry for the blog ;-)

First, a confession, if you have read the other posts in this blog then you'll know that it was our intention to use copper clad sleepers and solder the rail to them, in order to protect the rail ends where the modules join together. That didn't really work out for us, as the copper clad sleepers just didn't allow enough tolerance when it came to leveling the track and we effectively ended up with undulations in the track at the board joints. So we had to scrap that idea, replacing the plasticard and copper clad sleepers with cork underlay. The underlay is very easily worked once it's been stuck down and can be sanded to give a nice level track bed. To secure the ends of the rails, we will now use Panel/Veneer pins and solder the rail to them. As we are using Code 55, we should be able to place these low on the rail and possibly hide them completely when ballasting.

This shows the layout after the plasticard has been replaced with 1/16" cork underlay at the module breaks.

The next few pictures were taken after we had finished the work on the layout, but taking each one I'll describe what has been done per module.

Added a length of track for the Up line and extended the Down / Down Siding to the module break.

Laid the Up line point work and crossover which allows access to the Industry Sidings via the Down Siding

No real change, but had to lift and relay the track on the closest module break after replacing the copper clad sleepers.

Laid the majority of the Up Siding, Up and Down lines. Also, working the other way, extended the off-scene sidings.

Added a length of track for the Down line and extended the Up / Up Siding to the module break.

Finally a shot from the opposite end of the layout (left to right from a viewing point of view)

Cheers.