Jump to content
 

American O Scale: "Portway Terminal Short Line, MN".


F-UnitMad
 Share

Recommended Posts

I found out about the decal sets as Bill Yancy had a photo in the O Scale resource and in the bottom corner there were two switchers one in each scheme. Question was asked and hey presto - Bill has decals and didn’t mind shipping them over here

 

The decals are printed by MicroScale and very nice too

 

Two sets of the red and white ones cost $30 including shipping 

 

Colin.

 

 

  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Looking back through this Thread I see it was in Febuary that I decided that I needed to do something about the sharpest curve on the layout (a.k.a. the Flange Squealer).

The legacy of this sharp corner was that the layout was originally built in HO, with a double-track  oval, which at this point used 2nd & 3rd radius setrack curves. The central heating boiler is underneath this part of the layout so I kept the boards quite narrow to help access to it.

I tried to stick with the original boards when I changed to O Scale; tests with old Lima O setrack curves (& previous experience with another layout) indicated that the locos (except SD40) & stock I have should be okay down to a 2ft radius curve - & they are, when being pulled. But when being propelled, some of the stock was contacting it's neighbour and derailing. As this curve forms part of the switching lead to the yard siding and the freight branch, it sees more propelling movements than most of the other curves on the layout, which are a minimum of 36" radius.

So, as I say, back in Febuary I posted here my intention to do something, which essentially was to rip up the curve, widen the board, & re-lay a 36" radius curve. I used my FastTracks templates to see how the new curve would fit - fortunately it'll go in without having to rejig much existing track at either end - just losing a bit of straight track as the curve starts earlier.

But what about widening the board? I'd used Knauf Spaceboard extruded foam slabs which B&Q used to sell. Since building the layout, they have very inconveniently stopped selling this product :shout: :mad: , going back instead to the more usual silver-backed, crumbly stuff that is probably cheaper for insulation purposes, but rubbish for model railway baseboards. 

I didn't have any Knauf Spaceboard offcuts left, & only needed a bit anyway, so didn't want to run the expense of a big sheet of whatever else I might find. Asking around, I eventually managed to scrounge an offcut of blue extruded foam from a good friend (who scrounged it from their model railway club!!) a few weeks ago.

So work has finally started to ease the curve! The front pelmet was removed, the 'new' foam cut to shape, & stuck to the original foam with construction adhesive, & the pelmet trimmed & glued back as well. The new foam isn't actually going to have much track on it - the curve will 'overlap' the join mostly, so weight bearing isn't a big factor, & I'm glad I chose the extruded foam method in the first place, as apart from sourcing an offcut, the actual modification has been easy.

Since taking the photo I also lifted the rails (I hadn't fully spiked them at this point in anticipation of this work) & scraped off the balsa ties, so it all looks a mess at this point now (because it IS a mess!!) & for the time being trains can no longer tail-chase themselves.

Next job - cut a new load of ties!!

20191015_162448.jpg

Edited by F-UnitMad
  • Like 9
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

SILVER SPIKE DAY!!! (Again!! :blush: )

 

The Deed is done!! This evening I have finished re-laying the curve to 36" radius. :sungum: and thus completing all the trackwork again to 'Silver Spike' level - all spiked enough for trains to run.

20191103_202822.jpg.19b2d87b18d41508ebbbdf448efa649f.jpg

The daft thing is, the new alignment is pretty close to the old trackbed, as can be seen above, with the remaining traces of the old HO lines even further up, but this new curve starts earlier than the old one did, and stays a more constant radius  through the curve.

20191103_202839.jpg.ac6e8ec6654abab74ebee525e9f8e1ca.jpg

 

20191103_202830.jpg.cdf1ad0515023b2c8d2835412e8b3b7e.jpg

 

The acid test was my Atlas SD40, which couldn't pull stock through the old curve because of the pilot overhang. It could manage the other curves, which of course are already 36" radius. So I tested it this evening, and it successfully pulled a train through this curve - the lead car was a 72ft Centerbeam Flat as well..!!:locomotive:

 

 

The only place on the layout the SD40 can't go now is the rough siding; it's rigid 3-axle trucks can't cope with the rickety track.

Edit: YouTube link added, and observant viewers will also notice that I've done the inset track on the Industry area - except it's not yet painted.

Happy Bunny again now! :D

Edited by F-UnitMad
  • Like 12
  • Craftsmanship/clever 1
  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
9 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

Bit too jiggly for my tastes.  The real thing tends to sway more than jiggle.

Again, we're back to the way a model behaves so differently to the real thing, and how replicating real life swaying of rolling stock is so difficult.

  • Agree 1
  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

[sigh]
The swing of a pendulum is proportional to it’s length. Mass doesn’t come into the equation, except possibly to dampen things through inertia.

Ergo, small trains wiggle where real ones sway.

  • Agree 2
  • Informative/Useful 1
  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
23 hours ago, Regularity said:

[sigh]
The swing of a pendulum is proportional to it’s length. Mass doesn’t come into the equation, except possibly to dampen things through inertia.

Ergo, small trains wiggle where real ones sway.

 

Probably the best reason for choosing the larget scale you have room for.

Don

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
10 hours ago, Donw said:

 

Probably the best reason for choosing the largest scale you have room for.

Don

That, plus failing eyesight as you get older!

But it also depends on how much space you have, and what you want to put into it, and what you are trying to achieve.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Nearly the end of yet another year... well this was always meant to be a long-term project, honest!!!

 

At least I do feel like I have made a bit of progress this year, especially re-laying the sharp curve to a more generous (!!!) 3ft radius.

Over the break I've done some more painting of the track that has been spiked, and what has been encouraging (as it was a bit of a surprise!!) is that there isn't much rail left to spike 'cosmetically'; in fact just the curved switch and the curved main and siding tracks away from it remain to be done, about 4ft or so overall, the tracks to the right in this earlier view taken while the siding was being laid.

loft2.jpg.de294eb2c21fdd6c65b9357360d446d5.jpg

That means that the Golden Spike Day isn't too far away!! :yahoo::locomotive: Hopefully within the next few months, at least! 

Of course, then I have to go back round and add in cosmetic rail joiners where I've missed them, and still work on distressing & weathering some of the ties; ballasting won't be done until after much of the scenic work is done- I always do it that way round as in reality the ballast comes after the scenery, not first!! So even with the Golden Spike in place, the track won't really be 'Finished', but at least a major milestone will have been reached. It seemed like quite a daunting task when I ripped up all the HO track to start afresh with O, but I know one thing - I can honestly say I haven't regretted that decision for one moment. :good:

 

Edit. Just looked back through the Thread, and I first reported on this layout in Jan 2016. I'd already been laying track before that, so must have started around summer 2015. So by summer 2020 it will have taken me about 5 years to hand-lay, spike, detail and paint all the track for this layout!! I bet there's some people on RMweb who've built, run & sold or scrapped plenty of layouts in that time!!! :jester:

At least I laid the track in 'operatable' stages, so I have been able to run trains for most of that time!!

Edited by F-UnitMad
  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
  • Friendly/supportive 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

There are some of us on here who's output since the start of 2016 has been minimal.  The only time the portable layout was visible was one April when I took it to the RBweb SWAG meet and trains actually ran. It has only just resurfaced from under piles of stuff.

  It has been interesting to see what you have been doing, including some of the best 'worst track' I have seen (quite an aert in itself I should think).

 

Don

  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...