Brafferton Update - 4. Trackwork Pt i

Okay; now I can tell you about the tracklaying. Whilst the lie of the land around Brafferton is fairly flat, I do want some areas to be slightly below track level and try and avoid that "train set" look often evident when all of the scenery is above rail height.

So the track will be on a base of 4mm ply and this will sit on frequent blocks of 8mm ply (2 lots of 4mm!) giving a potential scale 6ft drop to the main baseboards. I used the computer to draw templates for the trackbed, tacked it with Pritt and then cut the ply with a sharp Stanley knife. I lightly scored the track centre with the knife and then inked it in following removal of the template:



Anybody not heard of Easitrac yet? Right I'll see you after class for detention then. I've mentioned before that I'd been trying out this new system and now I'm ready to dive in the deep end. Some sections of 10"-12" were made up using the Easitrac jig. Then using the recommended glue, I positioned one section at a time:

The glue seems to cure fairly quickly, but doesn't go hard like PVA; it retains a rubberyness and the very slightest "give". You will see that I am using PCB sleepers at each end of the section. This is more for electrical connection than anything else. At this radius (31") I have more than faith in the robustness of the Easitrac bases:

Here we have the trackwork completed for baseboard No.1. I may have to trim the track back slightly at the far end to fabricate an accurate cross-board joint:

Now onto board No.2 and some pointwork. If I get a pass out for Saturday, I'll bring the progress to date along.